


Keep You Close || JENSOO

by Ary_yazn



Category: BLACKPINK, BLINK - Fandom, Blinks - Fandom, Rosé blackpink - Fandom, jennie - Fandom, jensoo - Fandom, jisoo - Fandom, lisa blackpink - Fandom
Genre: Crime, Drama, F/F, Gen, Humor, LGBT, Romance, gxg, jensoo, selfdiscovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-23
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:02:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 50,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23808838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ary_yazn/pseuds/Ary_yazn
Summary: Kim Jisoo, the cold beauty and the daughter of the most wealthiest businessman in Korea, finds herself in a mysterious situation with Jennie kim, the poor one whom was running from the mafia, and in her own house.
Relationships: Chaelisa, Jensoo - Relationship
Comments: 9
Kudos: 46





	1. Two different worlds

Chapter 1

On Jeju Island, where this mansion is located, boredered with big forest at the back of it. A forest which is also bordered at the end by a village. In front of the mansion there's the main street, separated from the mansion by the front garden and the parking garage,all rounded by a big wall. A group of cars arrive at the entrance of the mansion and stop at the door, a few number of servants get out from the first car and the third along with the security guards. One of the security men walks past the car in the middle and opens the door for the mansion lady to exit.

This Soft, delicate and infinitely beautiful, with a goddess-like body and silky black hair, Kim Jisoo.

The daughter of Kim Sehun, one of the most influential men in Korea for his vast influence and immense wealth. She herself has her own company branch to manage. Next to Jisoo, her loyal butler, who has been with her ever since she was very young, Lee Min Yoo.

Jisoo takes a deep breath as she ponders the house she will be living in from now on, which was a sudden request from her father.

Her aunt must be coming on vacation at their house in Seoul and so to avoid any quarrels, he sent her here. It is unfortunate but a must.

Jisoo enters the mansion and suddenly the lights turn on, then the servants enter and Lee Min Yoo walks ahead of them.

"Welcome, madam. We are your loyal men at your service. Please leave all of your worries and think only about your comfort."

Min Yoo says standing at the entrance to the mansion, bowing to her.

"Min Yoo ... How many times did I tell you that there was no need for honorifics. I spent more time with you than my father so..spare me." Jisoo replies in boredom.

Lee Min Yoo smiles at her and then nods and expands his hand in the direction of the mansion as a sign for her to enter.

.

.

.

.

.

"Shit! Shit! What are they doing here ?! Damn it!! Dad, you will pay for this!!" Jennie mutters in a low voice and in a stressed tone as she looks around, terrified. listening to the violent blows on the door.

"They're still at the door, what will I do? If they don't find their money they will inevitably kill me or take me with them! Fuck!" She says and looks around again for a way out until her eyes fall on the bathroom window and she rushes to it.

"Quickly, I have to run! Damn! it's narrow! Come on! Come on!"

Jennie tries to get out of the bathroom window and hardly presses her body to pass through the window. In the meantime, men smashes the door and starts looking for her.

After struggling a bit with the window, Jennie gets out and falls to the ground. The men hear the sound of the fall coming from the other side, and they rush to the outside. Jennie was hurt by falling a little, but this is not the time to complain, so she gathers all her energy and strength to stand and starts running away, listening to the screams of men behind her.

"She ran away into the woods! Track her! Don't let her get away! Our heads that will be cut off if we don't catch her!"

Jennie runs as fast as she can, Resists pain and fatige. She's starting to get thirsty; the forest is dark and can see nothing, her face and hands are full of scratches as she collides with leaves and twigs while her feet are contaminated with mud and dirt.

She has isolated her consciousness from the outside world and all she thinks of now is to get away from them, focusing only on running and what's in front of her. She's looking for any shelter that protects her, anything. Thinking about losing them, she starts to change her running direction and after about an hour or more of continuous running, she finds herself in front of a narrow hallway . It looks like a secret passage.

Trying to catch her breaths, she slows down a liitle, feeling as if she is about to faint. And starts walking in the hallway, only hearing her breath. She must have managed to lose them.

When She reaches the end of the hallway, she finds an old wooden door in front of her connected to a large wall. she can also see a part from the mansion that is located behind it, feeling the shudder just from looking at it.

What will she do? would she risk entering? not knowing what's gonna happen behind this door and who lives in there? 

At another time, she would have driven out these ideas and gone on another path, has she not been in urgent need of hiding now. She has no other option, especially since those who chase her have mostly spread around the edge of the forest and in the village.

Jennie opens the door and enters the mansion's back garden tip toeing, quietly. The place is dark and quiet, and the mansion's lights are off. They must be sleeping now.

She keeps walking cautiously as she searches for a place to sit, trying to find a suitable spot that protects her, at least until the sun rises before the owners of this palace wake u-

"Hey!! So what are we going to do now? Where are we?"

"Yes..I'm really tired and hungry. In fact, very hungry."

Jennie stands still, shocked. Doesn't know who these voices are and where they came from. She turns slowly, feels bewildered once she sees them.

"uh..wh- what ?! Wh- who are you for heaven's sake?" Jennie says stuttering in a low voice as she looks at the two strange girls in front of her, feeling lost. From their looks, she can tell that they are about the same age as her, but she doesn't know them and doesn't know how they came here.

"Oh ... I apologize for the late introduction, because you were running continuously and we had no chance to ask you anything." One of the girls says, putting both hands on her waist and breathing heavily, it looks as if she has just came back from a marathon and the other one was the same as well.

"What? What are you saying? Who are you?" Jennie repeats her question, more confused.

"I am Lisa!" The girl answers with an enthusiastic tone, as she points to herself, then points to her friend.

"And this's Chaeyoung."

"We were asleep, and suddenly we heard screams and violent steps." She continues. "We woke up to see what's going on and you ran by quickly. Frankly, your expressions were very funny, but this is not the point. Anyway, we started running with you! " Lisa completes wearing a proud smile while Jennie still looking confused.

She must had been so immersed in her thoughts that she didn't notice their presence, typical Jennie.

"What?! Why? Is your mind ok? Why are you following someone you don't know?" Jennie addressees in disapproval.

"Oh, as you know, most of those who die in horror movies die because they do not quickly understand the danger coming to them. And that is why me and Rosie decided we should not become like them." Lisa says in all seriousness.

"It's true, and since you were running as if someone was about to steal your food..it must be dangerous and so we followed you." Chaeyoung adds approving her friend's point with a smile and contentment as she exchanges looks with Lisa, which is reflecting her cheerful facial expressions while Jennie is cursing her luck and the day she was born inside her head listening to their words and amazement is still on her face.

"Oh shit! We have to hide." Jennie says suddenly when she feels some movement and noise from inside the palace.

Jennie lowers her head, and Lisa and Chaeyoung do the same. She hints at a tree-shaded spot beside the wall beneath one of the mansion windows, and tells them to go there.

They reach the spot and sit quietly next to each other against the wall so no one can hears them. when she makes sure it's safe, Jennie cushions her head against the wall to rest and sighs tiredly.

She ran a long distance and she barely can feel her legs. Feeling drowsy, her heavy eyelids force her to close her eyes. And as the sleepiness begins to take over her, she puts her head between her knees and hugs them, letting herself to take a break.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

**

"Mom! Mom! Look, it's a butterfly!"

Jennie says passionately as she pulls the edge of her mother's dress and points to a large butterfly, with bright and colorful wings, standing on a plant in their small garden.

\- "Really? What a beautiful butterfly...just like you." Her mother responds, agreeing to her daughter's tone of joy.

"Mom..at school, the teacher told us that the butterfly in the beginning is a small caterpillar and then it grows to become like this. Is this true?"

\- "Yes, Jennie... at first, it is a weak caterpillar that is unable to do anything, and then it wraps itself in what we call it, a cocoon , to grow and come out like this, as an grown butterfly."

"Oh, what a beautiful thing."

Jennie adds, looking at the butterfly with admiration. Her mother stares silently at her, smiling softly.

"Jennie , you know? We humans, are just like her but in a different way." Her mother begins with a gentle tone, drawing her daughter's attention.

"Really? how?"

"At the beginning, we also come to this world weak and fragile, in need to our parents to take care of us so that we can grow up and be able to stand on our own two feet. They continue to take care for us and give us what is necessary to be in good health. They prepare us for the time when we must make our own decisions.."

little Jennie continues to listen to her mother carefully despite not fully understanding what her mother wants to convey to her, so she focuses well on what her mother says to her.

"In fact, when you grow up a little and become a beautiful and smart girl, and I am sure of this. You will have moments when you feel completely helpless, moments when you think it is the end .." 

Her mother falls silent a little and then continues while placing her hand around Jennie's shoulder.

"But you, my little Jennie, are very strong. You will find this cocoon someday to make you stronger and stronger. What is this cocoon and in what image will it appear to you? You will know this too."

Her words that Jennie still remembers, the love that they contain, the bright smile on her mother's face, the strength that she drew from her..all of it rests deep inside Jennie. 

Suddenly her mother stops smiling..

"Now, my dear, I have to go. You have more important things to care for. Always remember that you are strong, always.."

Her mother says calmly as she gently caresses Jennie's cheek to then straighten her pose and turns around and starts walking away.

"What? Why? Stay here, please..

\- Little Jennie says she starts walking behind her mother, but the closer she gets, the farther her mother becomes.- 

Mom!! Stop! why are you getting further and further ..Mom please! Stop!..

**

"Stop!!"

"Shh ... lower your voice! They will know that we are here!!" Lisa says in a whisper as she looks at Jennie.

Astonished, Jennie remains silent for a moment while she absorbs the surroundings and realizes that what she was experiencing is nothing but a dream that goes back to her childhood days, of course with a little twist at the end. She sighs returning to reality, feeling exhausted with a hope that no one had heard her. Raising her gaze towards the side when she hears the sound of a noise next to her, her pupils expands in amazement at what she sees.

What are Lisa and Chaeyoung doing at the glass back door of the mansion? Are they trying to open it? are they out of their minds?!

"Hey! What are you doing? Move away! " Jennie whisperes, in a stressed tone, as she stands up and heads towards them.

"We are frozen from the cold! Don't you see how your body is trembling?! Besides, we will go before they notice us." Lisa answers without looking up from the lock and without stopping trying to open it. Jennie looks at her hands and see that she is right, her hands are really shaking, but this is still not justified.

"Does this allow you to break into the homes of others? You will put us in a trouble!" Jennie says in a reproachful tone.

" Hey, can you stop arguing already!" Chaeyoung adds impatiently as she looks with irritation to both, to then softens her facial expressions with indifference and returns her attention to Lisa.

"Lisa hurry!"

Jennie stands still with her mouth slightly open, looking at them unbelievably, doesn't know what to say. A little while ago she was about to be killed and now she is on her way to the prison for intrusion.

Good..cool..very cool!

"Ah! I opened it! I opened it!" Lisa says suddenly, excitedly as she opens the door.

"Come on! Quietly and slowly..Go in. "

"Lisa yah! Now I'm sure you're the smartest one between us!" Chaeyoung says in a playful tone from behind her.

"Wait..just now?" Lisa adds with a deadpan expression, and Chaeyoung just pushes her lightly, indicating her to start walking. Jennie rolls her eyes at them and follows them.

Carefully, the girls enter..one by one, through the back door of the mansion, which opens to the secondary dining room. They move slowly and try not to make a sound. Trying to get to the back of the sofa temporarily and while Jennie is putting all of her focus on her steps, she suddenly stops and looks with panic when she hints something on the other side.

"Hey!! Chaeyoung! what are you doing next to the table?! We are moving in this direction." Jennie says through gritted teeth, as she points to Chaeyoung towards where they are supposed to go.

"What?" says Lisa, confused, and then turns to see Chaeyoung in the opposite direction, walking towards the fruit basket in the center of the table. Feeling betrayed, she calls for her in a stressed and low tone.

"Hey! what are you doing?"

"What? I told you I'm hungry." Chaeyoung answers as she takes bites from the apple and looks at them with wonder. 

"And when I saw these in front of me, I couldn't control myself." 

"How do you go without telling me? I'm also hungry!" Lisa says, grumbled as she goes over to Chaeyoung's side.

"Really! Is that all you're thinking of? We are about to get caught and you're here arguing over food!"

"Sorry but you didn't spend your life eating solid bread so you can't understand us." Chaeyoung says with irony.

"Yeah..who shpenz hiz life in zhe colt wader, ish not zhe shame like who shpenz it in zhe hot wader." Lisa adds with an apple in her mouth as she take the fruits out from the basket with both hands and hides them in her pocket.

"What?! Take that out from your mouth, then talk!" Jennie says, irritated. 

"Anyway, come on! We have to move before we-"

"Stop right there!"

——————————————-  
To be continued  
——————————————


	2. When We First Met

Chapter 2

"Stop right now!"

A husky strong voice speaks to them suddenly causing them to freeze in their places.

"Who are you?! And what are you doing here?"

There is silence throughout the hall, as if they knew that their adventures had come to an end. Jennie, Lisa and Chaeyoung , in complete darkness, are all in shock as they look towards the stranger who appeared to them. From the voice they appear to be a girl but they cannot see her face, barely can see glimpses of her body.

The unknown girl turns on the light causing them to close their eyes for seconds as a result of the sudden light, giving them a clear vision to see her. Who is now looking at them with anger, waiting for their response but fear prevents them to do so.

"What? Didn't you hear me? I'm asking, who. are. you?"

Once again..no answer.

"Do you really think silence will save you? If I call the police now, will you stay silence like this?"

Again..nothing. 

Starting to lose her patience, she turns her attention to Lisa 'cause she seems more questionable than the others.

"you! I'm talking to you! Who are you and what do you want?"

With the fear overwhelming Lisa, she raises her shaking hands upward. Frightened, shivering non-stop, she shakes her head left and right as if she's saying 'No'.

"What? What do you mean?"

Lisa repeats her sign, pointing weakly to her mouth.

"Are you saying that you can't speak? Are you dumb?" She says sarcastically. 

At that moment, Jennie realizes that it's actually a good idea and a perfect way out because then she will not have to explain anything to her and it will be difficult to question them. So she moves her head up and down aggressively as an answer with a yes until she draws the attention of the unknown girl to her.

"What? She really can't speak?"

Jennie nods positively and the girl poles her eyebrows a little, apparently feeling guilty for thinking that she mocked her condition. Jennie uses this to her advantage and points to herself and then to her mouth, followed by a sign of negation.

"you too?"

Jennie repeats the gesture quickly, indicating her nervousness.

"Are you telling me that you all, can't really talk?"

Jennie and Lisa exchanges looks a little and then nods, Chaeyoung sees them and nods too, going along with the flow.

"Huh? You must be kidding me." The unknown girl scoffes at the ridiculousness of the situation and sighs. Suddenly, she hears the sound of foot steps approaching them.

"Jisoo-ssi? Are you here?" Min Yoo calls in a firm tone.

"Min Yoo. Yes, I'm here. Don't enter. You don't have to come." Jisoo replies from behind the door.

'So her name is Jisoo' Jennie thinks.

"Ma'am, are you all right? I heard voices below and didn't find you in your suit so I came looking for you." Min Yoo says standing behind the door, obeying Jisoo's words. 

"I'm fine, just wanted to breathe some fresh air. Don't worry, you can go now." Jisoo responds looking at the girls, analyzing them. 

Usually, anyone will contact the police immediately without asking or understanding the truth of the matter but it's not that way with Jisoo. She is a rational and fair girl, whose principles are not to make judgments or decisions without knowing the full aspects of the story. Especially since the ones she caught are just young girls who don't carry any dangerous tool and seems poor and innocent, basically homeless, and so it seemed wise for her to slow down before any act.

"Umm, are you sure?"

"Min Yoo..I told you that I'm fine.."

"I apologize, I'm going now. Have a good night."

"You too."

. . . . . . . 

Jisoo is sitting on the sofa with her leg over the other, arms crossed, and on the opposite sofa, the trio sits next to each other politely with their eyes looking at the floor, while Jisoo is staring at them.

And Jennie can't help but think 'what's is this situation?'. 10 minutes have already passed and she's still staring at them! Is she not totally convinced in their lie? Will she hand them over to security? Her mind is going to explode from the uneasiness.

Jennie turns her head slightly to Lisa and squints her eyes. Why does she look like she's choking on air? And isn't her mouth a little swollen? On mentioning her mouth, she hasn't opened it since Jisoo caught them. What is happening with her?

And why the hell is this girl still staring at them? Wait..is it possible that she looks at them THEM? Like their clothes and how they look?

Well, whatever, for Jennie it doesn't matter. Her clothes are not bad compared to those two beside her. They are clearly homel-

Jennie's eyes lay on her feet and see her toes outside her socks, which leads her to absorb the tattered state she's in; her clothes, which turned from good to completely homeless clothes, her hair messy and dirty, her body muddy and full of scratches and that she went out running in her socks..IN HER FUCKING SOCKS!

'Someone bury me, please.'

"So.."

Jisoo speaks suddenly, causing them to jump from their place.

"From what I understood now is that; you can't speak, can't write and can't read. Right?"

They all nod at once and goes to sit back. Shortly before they sit, Jisoo suddenly gets up, prompting them to stand again.

"Well, we'll see about that in the right time. Now, follow me..quietly."

Jisoo takes them to her private wing and on their way to it, despite the darkness, they can see a little due to the dim light outside that's coming from the windows. They see glimpses of the interior design of the mansion and it's royal decorations in modern style.

Astonished, they don't know whether this is a dream or a reality. What they only used to see on TV is right in front of them.

They reach the wing, which is located on the third floor of the mansion and before its door, there's a corridor of its design it's almost look like an art gallery.

They walk through it all the way to the door.

"Go inside, the place where you are now is my private wing." Jisoo says opening the door and they go in. She leads them to the sitting area and stops.

"Please sit." 

She waits for them to sit then she adds.

"There are three rooms in this suite, my own room which is in this direction, two additional rooms facing the opposite of my room and in this direction are two bathrooms." she talks while pointing to the places she mentions to show them. "For the time being, you will stay here, and you mustn't take one step outside until I allow you to." She states looking at them with a sharp gaze.

They nod slowly in disbelief, showing her that they understood. 

Did she just let them stay here?

"Good, now go and bath." Jisoo adds as she turns her head to the other side, with an annoyed expression, as if she can't stand the scenery in front of her, like she's feeling disgusted, which makes Jennie think 'Who the hell does she think she is?'.

"Put on the bathrobes inside until I get you some clothes. Am I clear? " Jisoo says, calmly.

They nod again, to then she goes out and closes the door behind her.

There's a little silence between them before Jennie decides to break it and goes to stand behind the door to make sure that Jisoo is really gone.

"Oh, she left finally. I can't believe what just happened." Jennie says, as she exhales a breath with relief and gets back beside the girls.

When Lisa hears that, suddenly she tries to get something out of her mouth.

"Uhg..ha..ah... damn it .. my mouth is cramping. Ah, painful!"

"Hey!! What's this? Ew!" Chaeyoung says looking at Lisa and makes a disgusted face.

"the hell?!" Jennie comments when she sees the apple in Lisa's hand. little bit carried away in her thoughts, she departs."You know, you did well when you decided not to talk. You surprised me, didn't expect that there are cells in your brain that actually work. "

"Oh thanks- wait..what? I didn't think of anything." Lisa disagrees. "When I heard her voice out from no where, I was terrified and the whole apple got into my mouth and it was difficult to get it out quickly so when she asked me, I really couldn't speak at the time." Says shaking her hand to emphasize her point. 

"oh I feel as if my jaw strings are torn." Lisa adds massaging her jaw leaving Jennie to have second thoughts on her decisions in life.

She had to praise the apple.

Lisa looks around her a little while rubbing her jaw and down her neck. She looks at Jennie and realize something.

"Ah..um..I know the situation is chaotic, etc., but only now I realize that you haven't yet told us what your name is!" Lisa says and Chaeyoung nods approveing.

"Oh right, I apologize ..it's Jennie." Quietly says Jennie. 

"What? Where?" Lisa says as she makes a fake wandy expression.

"My name!"

"What about your name?"

Jennie doesn't answer her, and just keeps staring at her with a straight face.

"Haha, just kidding. I am glad to meet you, Jennie!" Lisa says with a smile, to which Jennie responds with a cold one.

"Of course I am not the happiest."

"Haha, so funny." Lisa adds nonchalantly and then continues."Anyways, did you see that! As if it is not enough to own a mansion like this, but also she has her own private wing!"

"Aahh..I know right? I don't dare to think of having such a place, even in my dreams!" Chaeyoung says streching her arms. "That's aside, we will enter the bathroom first. You heard her, right? " She finishes, wearing an excited expression with a sinister smile, exchanging looks with Lisa who is now mirroring her expression. 

"Hehehe.. we are. Of course." Lisa adds shaking her eyebrows up and down.

"Yes! let's go!" Chaeyoung agrees jumping from her seat and Lisa does the same.  
She then clamps her arm with Lisa and they go to the bathroom doing small jumps.

While Jennie just rolled her eyes at them, thinking about Jisoo's true intentions. Did she really left them just like that? Even more, she gave them a place to stay in!

Is she one of those naive rich people, or is there something else in her mind? Like get them drugged, kidnaps them and then take out their organs..

What? It's a possibility. 

Whatever it is, she has to remain low profile and keep her eyes open. There's no room for mistakes now.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.

"Woah.. I feel refreshed now. I don't remember when it was the last time we had such a good bath." Chaeyoung says as she dries her hair and throws herself on the sofa as well as Lisa.

"Umm, because such a memory didn't happen in the first place?" Lisa deadpans.

"Haha, yeah it happened ... when we were ten years old." Chaeyoung replies with a smile looking at the ceiling.

"Why are you talking like we were living the time of our lives when we were 10?" Looking at her, Lisa says, denouncing it.

"Shhh..mute mode! mute mode!" Lisa says quickly in a whisper when they hear the sound of the door opening.

The door opens and Jisoo comes in, has brought them clothes.

"What? have you already finished? Where's the other girl?" Says Jisoo as she approaches and looks at them with farrowed eyebrows.

Lisa points to the bathroom.

"Oh, well..I brought you some of the available guests' clothes, pajamas. put them on, if it doesn't fit. Let me know." She adds when her eyes lay on Chaeyoung and digresses."Mmm..why are you lying like this? Are you alright?"

Chaeyoung nods, doesn't know why she's asking her this.

Jisoo's question draws Lisa's attention, so she turns her head look at Chaeyoung, and her pupils expand at the sight.

'Damn Chae! I told you mute mode, not paralyzed mode!' 

In the meantime, Jennie in the next room has finished bathing and on her way to wear the robe when she doesn't find one. 

where is it? They told her it was hanging behind the door. Is it possible that she went inside the bathroom in which Chaeyoung and Lisa previously entered?

This is what happens when you daydream too much.

Jennie stands naked, confused, massaging her hair, grumbling as she looks around. Would she call them to bring it to her before Jisoo returns?

. . . . . . . .

Amid the strange atmosphere that surrounds the place, Jisoo, Lisa and Chaeyoung are sitting in an uncomfortable silence; Jisoo was staring at the blank space waiting for Jennie to come out. She's late and the morning is just few hours away. Tired, she herself is already starting to feel sleepy, especially since she hasn't slept ever since she left Seoul from last night.

That's when it came to her. A faster and direct solution; simply going to her and give her the clothes, and head to her room.

Jisoo stands up and starts walking to the bathroom when Lisa notices her and realizes that Jennie doesn't know that Jisoo has returned. What's the plan? What if Jennie spoke unintentionally, exposing them?

Little does Lisa know that at the same time there is Jennie thinking about calling her.

What will she do? She cannot distract Jisoo, or warn Jennie. what-

While she is at the height of her tension, thinking about a way out of this problem. Her eyes lie on the glass table next to her, and an amazing idea comes to her mind - maybe?- and puts it immediately into action.

—————————————  
To be continued  
—————————————

Thank you for your Votes & comments ♥ ️


	3. Everyone Have Their Reasons

Chapter 3

"Sir! Please! Forgive us! Please! Give us another chance and we will definitely bring her to you! Pleas-"

The sound of gunfire prevails over the place and silence take over them all. Each one of them prays that his turn doesn't come, lining up waiting for their leader's orders, Matthew.

"When I say, none of you comes to me unless the girl is with him, I mean literally that none of you comes unless the girl is with him!" He shouts, angrily. "But apparently, I wasn't serious enough for you." He adds staring at them with cold eyes filled with the intent to kill. Fear fills the men and someone jumps to try to find compassion.

"Sir! We swear to you that it's not like this at all! We searched for it throughout the entire forest until we reached the limits of the mansion, we couldn't go any furthe-"

"Mansion? What mansion?" Matthew says, confused, cutting the man's speech.

"Uh..there is this mansion at the end of the forest on the other side. When we wanted to go deep into searching around it, we found that it was surrounded by a wall and the security guards had already begun to appear so we couldn't get closer to it."

"Hmm..this is interesting." He says with a smirk.

A new person appeared in the area? A rich one too.

He turns his eyes to a group of men and follows: "You! Go and find out what kind of person the owner of this mansion is and everything related to it. As for you.." he orders as he turns his gaze to another group.

"Keep looking for her. Don't make me repeat my words. Don't come to me if she's not with you! Now leave."

" Yes sir!!"

.

.

.

.

.

.

"Um ... Ma'am, did something happen? You look so tired." Min Yoo says as he puts breakfast plates on the table.

Jisoo turnes her head towards Min Yoo, her eyes look like those of a panda. She looks like the living dead, her red eyes and her tired eyelids revealing a lot. Jisoo raises her head up, looking at the ceiling for a seconds, then takes a deep breath and holds the knife and fork to start her morning breakfast.

"Min Yoo, there is something I have to tell you. After you finish your work, meet me at the office, and also why aren't there any guards around the back door in the secondary garden?" She says while cutting the omelette.

When she left to bring them clothes last night, she had her time to check how did they came to the mansion and from where.

"There is a back door?"

They stare at each other a little with straight expressions, still don't know their way around the mansion very well.

"I was also surprised. Anyway, we will talk later."

"As you like, ma'am, and I will also tell the men to surround the mansion well, it seems that they just checked the front side because it was late." Min Yoo says gently.

"And tell them to change the locks of all the doors to a stronger and newer ones. Starting with the ones around the back garden."

"As you wish." He responds, despite his confusion to her request. "But ma'am, can you tell me what happened with you last night to become this tired?" He says making Jisoo stop eating and stare into the void.

**

'Well, I will simply hand over the clothes and go to my room, I hope she has finished.' Jisoo thinks to herself as she stands up and starts walking when she suddenly stops in astonishment, hearing the shattering of glass behind her.

Turning, she sees Lisa laying almost on top of the glass table which she has fallen on it, and both her hand and lower arm are injured while She is gritting her teeth in pain. Chaeyoung is already beside her and she looks terrified. At that moment, Jisoo quickly rushes to her.

"Calm down! Let me see your arm!"

Jisoo holds Lisa's arm to see the glass shards embedded in it and starts extracting them one by one with great caution, while Lisa is trying to mute her pains during that.

. . . . . . .

While Jennie was about to call on Lisa, the sound of shattering glass prevented her from doing so. She freezes in her place, doesn't know what happened and if someone is hurt or not. She tends to go out, but she stops in her tracks when she hears the voice of Jisoo, shouting at Lisa, asking her to calm down. And she freaks out.

When did she come back? And what happened? What was that shattering sound? Did they come after her? Did they find her? Are they here already?! Did Jisoo find out? she has to get out. She has to run away! but how? Even her old clothes, she put them outside the bathroom. 

Talk about unfortunate events. 'Fuck' 

She has to- 

Jenny's stands still when her eyes lay on the shower curtain in front of her.

. . . . . . .

"It's okay, we're almost done, this is the last piece of glass." Jisoo says holding Lisa's arm carefully.

Closing her eyes partially, Lisa clenches her teeth out of pain and nods.

"Well, here we go.."

She pulls the last piece of glass smoothly and sets it aside, then tends to rise quickly to bring the first aid kit and before she gets up completely she turns to see Jennie standing in shock and in her hand, holding the pole which the curtains hang on. Looks like she's ready to get into a battle. Jisoo's eyes wanders over her a little; her wet hair, her white soft skin and something else that catches her attention.

Is this the shower curtain? Did she cover herself with the shower curtain?

Jennie looks down at her new homemade dress when she sees the lost expression on Jisoo's face and then returns her gaze towards her and smiles humorlessly. 

'She will definitely report me now.'

.

.

.

.

"Okay..we are done. We have to sterilize it constantly but don't worry. You'll be fine. As for the glass, we'll take care of it tomorrow. Now go to your room and get some rest." Jisoo says with a smile, now that she had finished treating Lisa's arm.

She hates seeing someone in pain, which causes her to involuntarily reveal her warm motherly side and so, she caresses Lisa and Chaeyoung's heads gently. Both Lisa and Chaeyoung stand up, feeling surprised and mostly touched, and express their gratitude to her by bowing then they go to one of the two additional rooms. 

Jisoo turns to Jennie, and looks at her as if her eyes are saying 'Now it's your turn.'

Jennie lowers her head and looks at different direction, feeling embarrassed.

"I can't believe you took off the shower curtain and got out like that, I believe there is a reason behind this which I won't be able to know given.." she trails off and departs."Never mind. Just go and change, I'll check on you later."

Jennie nods and bows to her and heads to the room.

. . . . . . 

"Wow..is this our room? Are we really going to sleep here? Woah.." Lisa says looking at the room with admiration to then she looks at Chaeyoung and sees her staring at her, frowning.

"Hey..What's wrong? Jisoo didn't find out anything. Why the long face then?" Says Lisa in a low tone.

Chaeyoung narrows her eyes in anger as if she was about to strangle her. "Is this at the expense of your physical health? What's your business with her? Let her go to hell, it's none of our concern!"

"Hey hey, calm down..they'll hear us.." Lisa says in whisper.

"Let them hear us, I don't care-" Lisa interruptes her scolding, putting her unharmed hand on Chaeyoung's mouth to silence her.

"Look..we're all in this together. If she knew about Jennie, she will know about us too, and then what? Best case, we will be expelled and return to our miserable lives. Is that what you want?"

Chaeyoung stills, looking at Lisa with sadness.

"For the first time in my life, I feel like a decent human being. For the first time, I got to know what it really means to live. Tell me, when was the last time someone patted your head? It's hard to remember, isn't it?" 

They stare at each other in complete silence for a seconds and Lisa is the first to break it moving her hand away.

"As I thought..and I'm determined to make this last as long as possible and I won't allow anything no matter what comes my way, just like how I won't allow anyone to harm you again. "

. . . . . . .

In the next room, Jennie struggles to try to fit the clothes on her, but it just doesn't. This pajama is for younger girls, teenagers maybe.

Previously she wrapped herself in the shower curtain, now with what? Bed sheet? Is destiny determined to make her more like Tarzan or what? She's very ashamed of what happened to the point that prevents her from asking for another. 

Looking at the clothes with her hands on her waist, she hears knocking on the door. She walks towards the door and stands behind it, wondering who it might be.

"I'm Jisoo, I just came to see if the clothes fit you or not."

Good, perfect timing. But, how will she responds?

She wears the robe that she had already taken back from the bathroom and opens the door a little and sees Jisoo standing sideways. Jisoo takes notice of her and Jennie tries to tell her by sighing that the clothes are tight.

"Sorry? I didn't catch that."

Jennie sighs a bit unnoticeably and then opens the door wider to appear fully in front of Jisoo. Jisoo's cheeks reddens a little at the sight when she sees Jennie like this. Now that she had taken a good bath, her face became more clearer.

'She's beautiful.' Is the first thought that hits her mind.

Jennie tries once more and points to the clothes, then bring her arms together with her expressions showing discomfort. Jisoo was silent for a bit as she was looking at Jennie motioning to her and then suddenly she turns her face away, making Jennie surprised by her actions.

"Oh, I got it, it's tight, isn't it? Wait a little, I'll bring another."

Jisoo goes to her room, smiling, as she saw Jennie's latest movement and expressions.

'She looked so cute.'

She stops in her tracks when she realizes that the morning has already come and she hasn't slept for two consecutive nights.

Great.

**

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

"You what? You let girls you don't even know inside the mansion? And you even gave them rooms and let them bath? I can't believe what I'm hearing.." Min Yoo says with a surprised expression while Jisoo is sitting with her arm resting on her desk, backs her cheek on the palm of her hand and looks at Min Yoo with boredom.

"Don't exaggerate Min Yoo. It's not like I harbored a serial killer, also you forgot to mention that they are mute too." Jisoo says in a playful tone.

"Really? And how do you know? What do you know about their true intentions? Especially since they entered the mansion without permission, their intentions are clearly bad..and why are you so calm?"

"Hmm, we will see about this later, plus I trust my intuition. I mean, even when I caught them, two froze in their place while the third one just continued to eat the apple." She adds swinging in her chair forward and backward.

"So I don't think they have any intention of harming me. At least I'm sure of that girl with the apple." She stops and then looks at Min Yoo. "Even if They want to, they can do nothing." Jisoo adds, smiling with ease, while Min Yoo is baffled and unable to explain his lady's behavior.

"Anyway, I don't want anyone to know about this. Tell the other servants that they are guests who will stay with me for a while and that no one comes near them." She says while getting up. "Also I would like you to buy some things after we talk to them. Now let's go."

.

.

.

"Before we begin, I'm Jisoo and the man next to me, Lee Min Yoo, is the chief butler here and he's the only one who knows about your presence here, for now, and how you came here." Jisoo emphasizes her last sentence, followed by a cold smile, making them feel embarrassed.

"Given the situation, I will ask some questions and you will answer signing either yes or no. Clear?"

They all nod in agreement.

"So, do you know each other? Are you related?"

Jennie shakes her head, No, Lisa nods nonchalantly, while Chaeyoung just rolls her head in circular motion.

They change their answer immediately when they take notice of themselves and the questioning expression on Jisoo, they quickly nod.

"Did you enter the mansion with the intention of stealing, assaulting or causing any harm, regardless of to who, or who is inside it?"

They quickly shake their heads, no.

"Good. So are you in need of help? running away from someone / looking for a place to hide or something?"

They nod with a helpless expression on their features. In fact, Jennie is the only one honest in her answer, while Chaeyoung and Lisa are just copying her, and so Lisa trys to look troubled like Jennie.

"Umm? Do you need to go to the bathroom?" Jisoo says looking at Lisa.

Jennie and Chaeyoung almost burst into laughter when they hears that, but they stop themselves. Lisa keeps a straight face for a moment, and then shakes her head.

"Okay then. For the time being, until it's safe for you to go out, you can stay here and..well, that's it." She finishes looking at them with a satisfied smile.

"What? That's all?" Turning towards Jisoo, Min Yoo says surprised.

"Is there anything else you would like to ask? Can you get an answer other than yes or no?"

Min Yoo stays silent because he know what Jisoo means, and he sighs helplessly.

"No, nothing. That's enough."

Jisoo turnes her eyes to the girls.

"We're finished here. You can go now."

They lean a forward a little, bowing, with gratitude and appreciation, and then they head up to their rooms. While they're on their way they hear the sound of knocking on the door and Min Yoo goes to check it out.

"Did I not warn you that no one interrupt us?" Min Yoo says when he sees that she is a maidservant.

"Sir, my apologizes. I just wanted to let you know that there are some men in black suits standing at the main door of the mansion saying that there is an important matter that should be discussed with the owner of the mansion."

————————————-  
To be continued  
————————————

Thank you for your Votes & comments ♥ ️


	4. What You Can’t See

Chapter 4

Jennie in her room, sitting on the bed, putting her head between her knees and thinking about those men who came to meet Jisoo.

Is it possible that these men are the same people who are looking for her? No, it can't be. How would they know where she is? 

Well, even if they are the same people, fortunately, Jisoo didn't go out to meet them and only sent this old man to deal with them. 

Ah right, he became aware of their existence too. She can tell that he didn't believe them not even one bit, his eyes are full of suspicion. She must be careful when he's around and beware of him. Let's just hope that nothing bad happens.

Jennie looks at the sleeve of the shirt she is wearing, raises the hem a little with her hand and starts to feel its fabric with her thumb.  
She never expected that she would bring her one of her own clothes.

'It's silky and cool.'

She pulls the sleeve up near her face and then smells it. 

'It smells nice too.'

So this is what a decent rich life looks like. She's grateful that she was able to experience this feeling even if it will be for a short period of time. Anyway, Jisoo asked them to go down at twelve o'clock for lunch. 

Good for her, that means two hours to sleep through!

. . . . . . .

"We thank you for letting us meet you. We're sure that what we will say, will meet your liking very much." Says the man with a broad smile.

One of his companions approaches him and whisperes to his ear to then he returns his attention to Min Yoo. 

"Just to be clear, are you the owner of this mansion?" He says looking at how fancy dressed Min Yoo is.

"Are you the head of this group?" Hearing Min Yoo's surprising response, the man narrows his eyes, confused.

"What do you mean?" 

"I'm not the owner, but it seems that the one who sent you did not teach you any manners, since he himself doesn't have it." The man jumps off his chair, angry, offended by the response of Min Yoo.

"Hey, you! who do you think yourself to insult our leader like this? It's better for you to take back your words and now!"

"Go and tell your leader. if he wants to meet the owner of this mansion, he has to come by himself. Not send a punch of children."

Min Yoo leaves the men in shock and outrage, a person like that looks down on them and despises even though he is a servant too. It baffles them more that they cannot do anything, seeing the security guards of the mansion surrounding them. 

"Dammit!" He says and take his way out.  
.

.

.

.

.  
.

.

Jennie goes out of her room to see Lisa and Chaeyoung have already gone out, standing in the middle of the wing and she approaches them.

"Umm..Lisa, about yesterday. I would like to thank you for what you did, without you I don't know what would have happened, so thank you." She starts bashfully as they begin to walk towards the door. 

"Oh, it's ok. I did it for us." Lisa replies nonchalantly and lets Chaeyoung walk out of the door first then she follows. 

"Well..in any case, thank you." She adds in a gentle tone while Chaeyoung just rolls her eyes.

"So, how is your arm?"

"It hurts a little, but overall it's fine."

"Since we're on it, you could have broken the table with only your hand, why your arm got hurt too?" Jennie asks stopping, making them stop too. 

"Oh, this was basically the plan, but when I was about to smash it, my feet stumbled and I fell on it. I was so nervous." Lisa answers reliving the memory with her facial expressions as she speaks. 

"From now on, I will never ask you about anything." Jennie deadpans and just stars walking again. 

The girls descend the stairs as Jisoo asked them, at twelve o'clock. They look around, not knowing where to go until they see who is waiting for them at the end of the stairs. 

"From here, I'll take you to where the lady is."

While they're following Min Yoo, they take their time to look at the mansion well, since the last time the darkness prevented them from doing so. Now that they are seeing it clearly, they are even more impressed with its beauty. 

Jennie caught on something while she was looking at the walls of the mansion , which she had noticed before.

At first she didn't pay much attention to it, but now that she see it well. This Jisoo, is really arrogant. Meaning, her portraits are basically on every wall! Like, okay..they get it, she's so beautiful. But this? This is too exaggerated. No wonder she's so full of herself. She won't be surprised if she is helping them just for show.

They arrive at the dining hall and find Jisoo sitting at the head of the table. She smiles when she notices them coming and points to them to have a seat. They look at the table and what have been put on it. All the dishes that only luxury restaurants offer, are in front of them and within their reach.

Jennie turnes her eyes to Lisa to find her drooling while she was looking at the food in amazement. Then her eyes lay on Chaeyoung and find her has already sat and started eating, her eyes turned into hearts. She sighs a little and then sits too along with Lisa.

Min Yoo, who was standing next to Jisoo, notices Chaeyoung as she eats with both hands. Turning to Jisoo and leaning a bit, he whispers to her."Ma'am, is the girl with blond hair at the end of the table, the one who kept eating the apple when you caught them?"

"Yeah, right. How did you know?"

"It's obvious ma'am." He says and then goes back to standing aside leaving Jisoo confused a little.

"Is there something wrong?" Jisoo says softly when she notices that Jennie doesn't eat much and eats slowly. "Is the food not up to your liking perhaps?" 

Surprised by Jisoo's question, she quickly shakes her head, to then she points to the food and follows it with an Ok sign and a weak smile, which means that the food has met her taste. 

And it is. She just trying her best to take as little as she can from what Jisoo is offering her, whether it's clothes or food or anything. Because she's only here to hide, that's the only thing she needs and she doesn't want to get involved with this girl nor get her involved. 

"good." Jisoo says smiling back and proceeds to eat.

One of the servants enters and approaches Min Yoo, and then whispers to him something. Once the servant has finished what she was telling, she leaves and Min Yoo turns toward Jisoo and asks her for permission to leave and she grants him that.

"Ma'am, we just got the secret code for the safe in your room. We can move the money in now." Min Yoo says looking at the girls, in clear voice and sharp tone, after his return from his absence that lasted for a few minutes.

Min Yoo could have delayed telling Jisoo the news regarding the safe until the girls have gone, but he deliberately did so to see their reaction. Lisa and Chaeyoung only continued eating their food while Jennie stopped a little and then continued as if she had not heard anything. Jisoo notices while Min Yoo is telling her, his eyes are focused on the girls. 

"Well, tell me later and also.." she signs to him to get closer so she can whisper to him.

"Would you stop looking at them as if they were about to explode at any second? You're freaking them out."

"Oh, sorry. I'm still not quite used to this, so I wasn't quite aware of myself. I'll stop it right away." Min Yoo says and turns his eyes away, standing next to Jisoo. 

After a few bites, Jisoo remembers something she had previously requested from Min Yoo, and she asks him whether it has arrived or not.

"Yes, they were already put in their rooms." Min Yoo answers drawing the girls' attention to look at them with questioning expressions.

"Oh, I asked him to buy you some clothes since it doesn't make sense to spend the whole day in sleepwear, does it?"

The girls smile and nod with gratitude. 

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

"Welcome, Mr. A, The evening just became better, now that you are here. And for that we have prepared for you- "

"I didn't come here to chat, Mr. Park."

The man nicknamed 'A' says with cold tone, from his eyes you can tell that he wasn't joking. He looks like someone who has lost his patience. 

"Where's my money?"

"Oh, your money, yeah..of course, it's ready. I was going to open this topic after dinner, but since you brought it up.." Park says with a subtle smile, and then he orders one of his men to bring in the money, minutes pass and the man returns with two bags and puts them on the table in front of Mr. A. 

He opens the two bags to make sure they are real and then lets his man counts them. 

"Well , by this the deal is finished. Now if you allow me, I will not be able to stay with you for dinner."

Mr. A stands up and walks to the door, and before he goes out, he stops and turns toward Mr. Park.

"Mr. Park, I hope next time there won't be such a delay. It's for the benefit of the two of us." He adds with a smile and sharp gaze, a special language that only the person who works in this field can understand.

He was straightforward threatening him. 

Mr. Park already knows how much Mr. A, and those who stand behind him, are strong and powerful, and for this time only he intends to play according to their rules and conditions.

Once Mr. A goes out of the door, Mr. Park stops smiling, and turns to one of his men, and asks them with an angry tone. "Where the hell is Matthew?"

"He's still at the back, at the party, sir-"

"Tell him to come, right now!"

. . . . . . . . .

Men go hastily to the backyard from the house where the party is, their eyes are searching for Matthew. The place is crowded and everyone is busy dancing and drinking. They try to cross from among the crowded people until one of them sees Matthew at the pool.

"There he is! He's by the pool!" He shouts at them and then goes toward Matthew and they follow.

"Sir! sir! Could you stop for a moment?"

"What? What is there? Don't you see I'm busy?" Matthew says with an angry tone, because they cut his intimate conversation with the girl next to him.

"Your father is calling for you! he wants you right now!"

"Ugh! what does he want now? dammit!!" 

He shouldn't have told him anything.

. . . . . . . . 

"Just now I have paid ten million dollars of my own money so that our graves won't be dug because my dear son couldn't find a homeless old man who stole our money nor even his daughter!" Mr. park says angrily. 

"Is that why I chose you to take care of this matter? to spend it in parties and screw around with girls? Answer me!"

Matthew passes his hand on his cheek, to ease the pain from the slap, and looks back at his father. 

"What do you want me to do more? We searched all the island and there's no sign of them." Matthew says in a stressed tone, irritated." Do you want me to search the homes of wealthy families as well? Do you really think that they will help such low-level people?"

"If you have to, then yes! Listen to me well, I will say it one last time. Find them! That man along with his daughter, if my money is not with them or even if you find it incomplete, kill them. Clear?   
I said, Am I clear?"

"Yes, father." Matthew responds in a low voice, hiding his anger and resentment.

"And also what did you do about the man who moved in recently?"

"I will go see him tomorrow."

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Cold breeze runs through Jennie's hair as she looks through the window of her room; stares into the void, breathes deeply many times, drowning in her thoughts. She moves away from the window and heads to her bed to lie down, troubled by what Min Yoo has said earlier.

Why would he mention such a thing in front of strangers he just met? Is he trying to lure them? It's not as if they would steal the safe if they knew about its existence and how would they steal it anyway?

Well, even if they did steal it, it wouldn't affect their wealth very much. She means..look at this mansion- oh what is She thinking?  
This is exactly how someone who intends to steal thinks. 

She have to stop thinking now before the headache visits her head and since she feels a little hungry, maybe she will go and eat something. Now that Jisoo has allowed them to go outside the wing. 

. . . . . . . . 

"Ma'am, your father is calling." The maid says standing at the office door and holding the phone. 

She must have forgotten it in the dining hall.

Jisoo sighs a little and then allows the maid to enter. The maid enters and Hands Jisoo the phone.

"You can go now."

The maid bowes to her and goes out, closing the door behind her.

/ "Yes, Dad." She says after picking up the call, leaning back in her chair.

"Oh my little girl, how are you? Is everything okay?"

"I'm fine, nothing to worry about."

[So? Did you like the mansion? I prepared it especially for you.] Her dad says with amused tone.

"Yes, I like it. Thank you, but..um, can you tell me why my portraits are hanging all around the mansion?" She says massaging her forehead, feeling exhausted after hours of work in her office.

"What? You don't like it? I thought this would make you happy-"

"How is seeing my face everywhere will make me happy?"

"Umm.. aah-"

"Never mind, it doesn't matter." Jisoo was talking coldly to her father, not because she has hatred for him, nor because he sent her away, she's just fed up with his attempts to pretend that everything is fine.

They fall silent for a seconds then she departs. "Umm..did you know there's a secret passage in the back garden?" 

"A secret passage?"

"Yeah." 

"That's surprising. Well, this mansion is originally your grandfather's, I never really got the chance to visit it." Her dad explains. "I only sent people to take care of it and prepare it, so yeah..this's new for me. Why? Is there any problem?"

"No, no..I was just wondering." She says tiredly.

"Jisoo, you know why I sent you there, right?"

"So there won't be any problems with my aunt." Jisoo answers quickly and briefly.

"No! I sent you there to get you out from the stifling atmosphere of the city. I know how much you've been tired for the last while. As for your aunt, believe me..she doesn't hate you. I mean..she is your aunt in the end. She just needs more time]

Jisoo giggles weakly hearing that, her laugh filled with sarcasm.

"A lot of years have passed already!" 

"Aah.." Sehun tries to find words to reply to his daughter but she is quick to cut him. "Dad, I feel tired and sleepy, if there's nothing else, I will go to sleep."

Sehun stays silent for a moment then he sighs and adds. "Okay sweetie, have a good night."

"Good night dad." \

She hangs up and then she stands and walks towards the door of her office. 

. . . . . . . .

"Just now, I was back from Mrs. Jisoo's office.." one of the maid servants says.

Jennie who has just arrived to the kitchen, hears the maids talking with each other, making her stop before entering the kitchen.

"She had received a call from her father. I can tell how sad she is just from her reaction. I can't believe there is such a father, he sends his daughter away only because his family doesn't love her."

"I know right? Poor girl, I mean, who would treat a girl like Jisoo this way? Even though she doesn't object to anything!" Says the other maid.

"From what I heard, even her brothers don't talk to her, what's wrong with this family? why is she the one paying for a mistake that her father did?"

"Hold up there, Is falling in love a sin now? Also, Jisoo's mother was very kind to us, even more kind than his wicked wife!"

"I know, I know.. but this doesn't change the fact that she was his mistress, which made everyone think that she's some kind of a prostitute."

"Shhh..what are you saying? Someone will hear you! stop gossiping and let's go."

"Now, you're aware of yourself?"

Shocked by what she just heard, she retreats and walks fast from there before the servants can notice her, she reaches the second floor and encounters Jisoo as she comes out of her office. Jisoo furrows her eyebrows when she notices her heavy breathing and terrified facial expressions.

"Why do you look so terrified? Did something happen?"

—————————————  
To be continued   
—————————————


	5. Forgotten Moments

Chapter 5

"Why do you look so terrified? Did something happen?" Jisoo says with a calm tone and worried expressions.

Jennie stays silent for a seconds, looking at her shocked, until she becomes aware of herself and shakes her head as she turns her head to the side.

She can't look at her face. Why did she have to hear that?

"Okay." Jisoo adds almost as whisper as she nods with understandment, to then she follows with a sleepy eyes. "I was on my way to go to my room, would you like to accompany me?"

Jennie nods as she looks up to her and when their eyes meet for a moment, Jennie quickly turns her eyes somewhere else. Jisoo notices it but she doesn't dwell on it, she's exhausted and doesn't have the energy to think about anything right now.

She walks towards the stairs as she trails Jennie, who was quietly following her. As they were heading up, all Jennie had in her mind was what she heard from the maids in the kitchen. She feels ashamed, as if she heard something that should not be heard.

And why is this? Why does she feel guilty? It's not like she heard it on purpose! 

She looks up towards Jisoo, seeing only her back and the way she walks; slowly and swaying a little. Jennie was keeping her pace slow same as Jisoo's, so she wouldn't collide with her.

'She looks ... tired.' 

Why does she keep thinking about that? She doesn't care at all! Whether she is tired or not, her private life doesn't concern her. She has to act as if she hasn't heard anything, she is only here until she finds another solution. That is if she stayed.

They arrive at the wing and Jisoo enters first and heads to her room, and before she goes inside, she wishes Jennie a good night. Which Jennie reciprocates it with a nod and a smile. When Jisoo opens the door of her room, Jennie catches an inside glimpse before the door closes.

** "Ma'am ... we just got the secret code for the safe in your room, we can move the money in now." **

Jennie remembers what Min Yoo said as she looks at Jisoo's closed door, sighs deeply and heads to her room.

'Really, What am I thinking?'

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Kim Sehun was sitting in his office at his company's headquarters in Seoul, working on some reports, when the phone rang beside him. He puts the file aside and then picks up the phone.

/ "I apologize for the inconvenience, sir. I just wanted to let you know that Ms. Kim Eun Ji would like to see you. Will I allow her- ah .. wait a moment- Ma'am! You can't enter like this! Ma'am"\

Sehun sighs helplessly and puts the phone back when he hears the door opening and closing forcefully, she's here. And he has an idea for what reason this might be.

Eun Ji walks in strides and fast steps, heading towards Sehun, looking very angry.

"I can't believe you did this!" She says in an angry tone, when she becomes close to his desk. "How can you give her the mansion in Jeju Island? That mansion belongs to our father, how can you give it to her so simple?"

"done?" Sehun says calmly, as he gets up from the chair, making Eun Ji look at him with disbelief.

"Good. The mansion was transformed by my father to me under my name long ago before he died." Sehun states confidently.

"What? What are you saying? You're lying. Why don't I have any knowledge of this?" Eun Ji says in a stressed tone as she looks at him denouncing.

"Because he simply knew that your reaction would be like this. Also, don't you think it's time for you to stop with your hate? Or rather, leave Jisoo out of it!"

"Hate? What hate? All I'm asking for is fairness. You didn't even make that much of an effort in your life and my father gives you an entire mansion? You don't even stay there when you go to Jeju!" She says, moving her hands in the air, in great annoyance. "You must be kidding with me. As if the shame that you and your mistress brought to us is not enough, your daughter goes and dates the son of our competitor! And now you send her to entertain herself. Don't you think you've gone too far here?"

"Since you chose to leave the one you love to marry someone you don't even know, for the benefit of your company only, I don't expect you to understand." Sehun says with his hands on the desk, disappointed. 

"All I ask of you, is that you leave Jisoo alone. She has been through enough."

shocked by what her brother just told her, she stays silent for a moment. All these years, she thought she kept it a secret but now..

"What are you talking about? What nonsense are you talking about?"

"No need to pretend. I know everything." He says in a firm tone. "Now, please, if you allow me, I still have work to do."

She stands still, trying to absorb what is happening and when she does, she doesn't show any reaction that indicates annoyance or tension. She cannot, and her pride doesn't allow her to do so.

"You think you made some kind of point because you know this much?" She says in a ridicul tone, to then she turns around and starts walking until she gets to the door and stops.

" Tell Jisoo to prepare for the party that will be held next month, it is better for her to prepare well. It's the only chance we have to regain our status among the families." She finishes her words without looking back and heads out, closing the door behind her forcefully.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

"Okay, I know..we deserve it, but like..really? Cleaning the whole garden as a punishment is greatly exaggerated."

Lisa says to Jennie and Chaeyoung in a low voice as she tries not to move her lips, holding the water pipe while she's spraying water on different sides of the back garden. Chaeyoung was trimming the trees while Jennie was sitting, squatting, taking off the dead grass and putting it in the bag next to her. All of them were with their back facing the mansion and Lisa stealing looks from time to time to check if there's anyone around.

"You're literally just watering the plants!" Chaeyoung says in a whisper.

"Ugh? Do you want me to work while my hand is like this? I'm hurt." Lisa says making a fake sad expression. 

She turns her head to take a look and sees Jisoo and Min Yoo standing behind the glass door of the hall, which is a distance away from their location, then she turns her head back.

"They're just standing like that, talking, it has already been several minutes! Don't they get bored?" She's says squinting her eyes from the sun. "Do you think they are talking about us? Like are they suspecting us?"

"As for the old man, yes he does." Jennie answers in low tone, through almost closed lips, as she changes her position to another spot, carrying the bag with her.

"What? How did you know?" Chaeyoung says in an absurd tone.

"In your opinion, why would he mention such an important matter, like the safe, in front of us?" Jennie answers in a matter of fact. 

she wipes her forehead from sweat, starting to feel the heat from the sunny weather today, she closes her eyes and opens them repeatedly in an attempt to focus more while she is working.

"Safe? What safe? I don't remember hearing him talking about any of that." Lisa says, confused.

"You literally were beside me yesterday at lunch when he mentioned it!" Jennie snaps through gritted teeth without looking at her. "Where was your mind? Oh wait..don't answer! I know where it was." She adds, deadpanning.

"Is he trying to test us? This doesn't make sense. Of course we won't try to steal the safe! huh right?"

"Of course not!" Chaeyoung agrees while Jennie stays silent.

"Jennie?" Lisa asks in a suspicious tone. "You don't intend to steal it, right?"

"Of course not!" 

A little silence then.."Maybe?"

"Are you crazy? You opposed us because we broke into the mansion and now you are thinking of stealing their money. What is wrong with you?"

"I don't know! Okay? I don't know. I'm just thinking. We both know that we won't stay here forever and I cannot stay outside either. Regardless of any of this, we cannot do it."

She's a smart girl. If she really wants to steal her, she can. It will take a lot of time and plans, but she can..well, she'll do her best. What prevents her is that she rejects such actions in the first place.

"Right, since you mentioned it, when we first met you were running away from some men." Chaeyoung starts, calmly. "Why were they chasing after you, why can't you stay outside?"

"Hey..We are in this together. If you want to do something, you won't be able to do it alone. So it's better for you to let us know the full story." Lisa adds when Jennie stills and doesn't answer.

Jennie stays silent for another moments then she takes deep breath and starts talking.

"They were chasing me because they think that I have their money."

"Money? What money?" Chaeyoung asks, getting more interested to hear the rest of the story.

"My father..stole ten million dollars from a mafia boss and after that he fled. And now they're looking after me and my father."

Lisa and Chaeyoung, both freeze for a few moments, surprised by what they just heard. They exchange side looks to then they return to their assigned work.

"Forget it, you're alone in this." Lisa says in serious tone, with a straight face. She takes a quick look at the mansion and squints her eyes as she turns her head back when she doesn't find them standing there anymore.

"We don't know you at all. Leave us out of this shit." Chaeyoung adds, mirroring Lisa facial expressions and tone.

"It's not been minutes since you said you were with me! what's with this sudden change?"

"Sorry, but we still want to live another few years." 

"Damn you- Shhh..silent, someone is coming."  
Jennie digresses when she hears the sliding sound of the glass door, opening.

Jisoo walks towards them, crossing her arms and approaches Jennie while she's sitting, continuing pulling off the dead grass. Jisoo stretches her arm in front of Jennie's eyes and waves her hand to attract her attention. When Jennie notices her she immediately stands up.

"You can stop now, go and rest a little inside."

She stares at Jisoo for her sudden request, then leaves what is in her hand and bows to Jisoo and then goes inside. Jisoo turns her eyes to Chaeyoung and asks her to do the same while Lisa is just standing, dumbfounded, watching them go. And she's wondering why she is the only one who she didn't ask to take a break.

Jisoo waits for the girls to go inside and then she turns to look at Lisa and finds her smiling wide, apparently waiting for Jisoo to tell her to go and have a break, but she just turns back around and go.

'The fuck?'

She knows that all she's doing is just watering the plants, and she thinks they're gonna die soon from overwatering, but it's tiring too!

Jisoo heads to Min Yoo who was standing in front of the glass door and asks him to take her portraits off the walls.

"Really? Why? They're beautiful, it's- okay, we will take them down right now." He digresses quickly when he sees Jisoo's straight expressions and rushes to the inside.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Jennie and Chaeyoung get out of their rooms to complete their work. As they're descending, Jennie notices that the maids are lifting the portraits off the walls and they are almost done.

She furrows as she keeps walking to the back garden, in wonder.

Why does she feel like Jisoo has read her mind?

They go out and heads towards Lisa to find her sitting on the edge of the lane that surrounds the park with the water pipe in her hand, and she has closed it as she stares into the void.

Lisa take notice of their arrival and stands up. 

"Welcome back, traitors!"

"Did you miss me?" Chaeyoung replies, teasing her.

"Yes, and this missed you more!" She says opening the tube and starts spraying the water at Chaeyoung's direction.

"Hey, what are you doing? Stop!" Chaeyoung exclaims as she escapes from one spot to another while Lisa chases her. 

"Stop before someone comes! Chaeyoung! Stop laughing so loud, stop!"

Jennie says in a low voice through gritted teeth as she tries to stop them but it's no use.

Lisa continues to mess around with Chaeyoung while Chaeyoung escapes from her, trying not to raise her voice, until she suddenly stops and turns toward Lisa with a revenge look on her face, making Lisa stop too, looking confused. With a surprising move, Chaeyoung starts chasing Lisa back, turning to Tom and Jerry the Korean version.

Looking at them, Jennie just gives up and goes back to her previous work ignoring the water drops that are falling on her.

. . . . . . . . . . 

Jisoo, who was working in her office, goes down to take a break and to check on them. She hears low sounds coming from the garden as she gets closer, sounds of laughters, she walks closer and looks from behind the glass, and sees Lisa and Chaeyoung playing with water. They had become completely wet, smiling widely. And she stares at them for moments.

Seeing them like this; laughing and playing around with each other, warms her heart and a weak smile forms on her face.

Something she never had.

. . . . . . . .

"What are you doing?"

They suddenly stop when they hear Jisoo's voice, and Lisa just stills, staring at her with a caught-in-crime expression.

'Damn! it's Jisoo! I hope our laughs weren't loud.'

They were loud.

Thinking while exchanging looks with Chaeyoung, after both of them have calmed down, they stand looking down, under the mercy of Jisoo.

"Who allowed you to play?" Jisoo says with a cold tone as she tries to look angry, but ending up looking cute instead. 

Silence lasts for a while until Lisa raises her head and raise the pipe in front Jisoo and waves her head a little to the side as if she asking her to play with them, this is what she thought of, to overthrow the strange atmosphere that prevailed between them. 

Shocked, Jisoo just Stares at her in disbelief. Is this really the best way out she could think of?

"What? Play with you? Are you kidding me?"

Lisa lowers her head again and she seems frustrated when she hears Jisoo's response. As for Jennie, who was quietly watching them, a tremendous curiosity invades her to know what Jisoo might do if someone pressed her too much? if someone really got on her nerves. She's always nice and calm, but what does she really look like from the inside? 

And Jennie being Jennie, this's just how she is. She has a tendency to push people around her to the edge and see their reaction afterwards, see what their true colors are. Because no one is perfect and no one is really all sweet and kind.

She stands up and goes to snatch the water pipe from Lisa and stands in front of Jisoo, looking at her as if she is challenging her. To then she opens the pipe and sprays Jisoo with a bit amount of water. 

It was a surprising move and a fast one, which made Jisoo try to avoid the water with her hand as she turned her head.

Shocked by what Jennie just did, she turns her head back and looks at her with great amazement, while Jennie is still wearing the same expressions. She gestures to Jisoo as she tilts her chin with fast motion up as if to say 'What are you gonna do?', challenging.

She repeats it and throws Jisoo with water again, but this time, Jisoo doesn't show any reaction nor she tries to avoid it and lets herself receive the water, except that the way she looks has changed from amazement to..

'You have chosen death.'

She starts walking closer to Jennie, at the same time Jennie starts to walk backwards, their eyes screaming that there's a war about to start, the intensity of the looks between them can roast a chicken. Lisa realizes that if she remains there she won't go out safe and so she nudges Chaeyoung to move away.

Suddenly, Jisoo speeds up, and Jennie does the same immediately, moving away from her, as Jisoo chases her while she continues to throw water up and backward, evading Jisoo so she won't be able to catch her. If Lisa and Chaeyoung were representing Tom and Jerry, these two are about to produce a WWE show.

And if Jennie tends to push people to the edge, Jisoo lives to teach them a lesson. And she'll teach this cat eyed girl a good one.

As this continues, Jisoo forgets herself as she chases Jennie and begins to smile weakly groudly, as well as for Jennie. It even reaches the point where they fall and starts to fight ignoring the mud and whoever holds the pipe is the winner and gets to wash the other with water. Flipping over each other on the ground, once it's Jennie above Jisoo and the second after it's Jisoo and so on.

Their game is about to come to an end when Jisoo wins, sitting on the stomach of Jennie, pinning her arms on the ground above her, and for someone who looks fragile as her, she has a strong grip. Both of them are trying to catch their breath while they are staring at each other, with Jisoo's smiling weakly at the corner of her mouth, proud of her victory.

"Ahm! Ma'am.." Min Yoo cuts in ending whatever that was going on, drawing their attention. 

Jisoo freezes in her place, looking at him surprised, then she looks at Jennie as she returns to the reality slowly and quickly releases Jennie's arms and gets off of her. Embarrassed, she extends her hand to help Jennie get up and then turns her attention to Min Yoo.

"I apologize for interrupting my lady.."

"Oh, umm- don't worry. It's a- did something happen?" Jisoo says as she wipes mud off her face, tiding her hair and clothes like nothing has happened, even though she has become wet and completely dirty. Getting back to her authoritative mode.

"I just wanted to let you know that there's a guest, asking to meet you, ma'am."

"Oh well ... Mmm, would you please lead them to the guests' lounge at the front side of the mansion and also, would you ask them to wait a little. As you can see I cannot meet them in this situation?" She says sheepishly.

"Of course ma'am, take your time."

Min Yoo goes, leaving both Jisoo and Jennie standing still in their place, neither of them can look at the face of the other. Both of them removed the barrier between them for moments. The barrier that was supposed to remain standing because, simply, it shows a side of you that you don't want others to see. 

Jisoo tries to break the silence and says something but finds herself unable to, and all she was able to say was that she had to go to meet the guests. Jennie nods, and the silence returns between them again. Jisoo looks at Jennie a little and then turns her face away and goes as she paces in an accelerated steps inside.

Jennie breathes a sigh of relief and turns around and sees Lisa and Chaeyoung embracing each other forcefully, looking towards her terrified.

"Chae, let's not joke with them again."

Chaeyoung agrees with her by moving her head up and down quickly.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

After taking a quick bath, Jisoo sits on the edge of the bed drying her hair, remembering what happened previously in the garden and smiling. The more she repeats it in her mind, the more embarrassed she becomes, which makes her lie down on her back and covers her face with the towel, feeling giddy.

She can't believe it! She completely forgot herself! And what was that girl thinking? What made her think that she can just go and joke with her like that? She's Kim Jisoo, goddammit!

She moves the towel away from her face and stares at the ceiling, stuck on this faint undesirable feeling.

It's been a long time since she last felt like this. Is she excited? Is she more at ease? And why? She really doesn't understand, all they did was spraying each other with water or rather they were fighting with water. So why? Why does she feel like this? Why does she feel as if..

As if they became..closer? 

For a moment there, she felt like they were just like any other friends..having a good time together.

Is there a possibility that they might become-

God, what is she thinking? friends? How will they become friends? It has not been two days since she met her! And why would she become friends with that girl? She's grumpy and insolent. Plus, she's here only because she needs to stay here! She will leave as soon as the situation becomes suitable for her outside. 

'You hear me, Jisoo? Keep that in your mind.'

She stills, staring at the empty space, then her eyes widens when she realizes she has a guest waiting for her, wanting to meet her.

A guest she totally forgot about. She have to hurry up!

. . . . . . . 

'What am I doing here?'

Does he really have to do this? Aah, were it not for that fool! 

They asked him to wait a little, but more than a fifteen minutes have passed and no one to be seen, except for the maid who came to offer hospitality. And he's tired from looking at the walls. He can tell how much of pain in the ass this man will be.

Matthew, who was standing looking at the paintings on the wall, the sound of the door opening coming in from behind him, catches his attention.

Somebody is finally coming.

The moment he turns, he sees Min Yoo enters first and after him a few servants, his eyes focusing on the door, eager to see the owner of the mansion. His curiosity has increased since they returned his men to him, he was thinking what kind of man he could possibly be that he possesses such an audacity and confidence and who does he think himself to act like that?

His questions and doubts all evaporate as soon as his eyes falls on her.

————————————  
To be continued  
————————————


	6. Turning Point

Chapter 6

Her striking beauty, her graceful and soft figure made him freeze in his place and his eyes to widen. Matthew, known among his friends for his fluent and tactful capabilities of speech, suddenly became unable to speak.

"I apologize for the delay. You must have waited a lot."

He stares at her while she is talking until she finishes her words. She looks at him with a questioning expression, confused by his silence. Moments of silence pass between them before he takes notice of himself and lets out:

"Oh no..it's nothing."

Jisoo smiles and points to sofa in front of her.

"Please..have a seat."

Matthew sits and then Jisoo sits opposite of him.

"Oh umm, I apologize for the fuss that my men previously caused. I will make sure that they receive the appropriate punishment." Matthew starts with a gentle tone.

\- "Punishment? It doesn't require any punishment."

He stills for a moment, surprised by Jisoo's comment. That was unexpected.

"Oh no. I meant that they would receive the appropriate reprimand so that the matter won't happen again. However, this is not why I came here. But first of all, we still didn't introduce ourselves yet."

"Right..I apologize, I'm Jisoo Kim." She says extending her hand.

"And I am Matthew Park, nice to meet you." He shakes her hand back.

"Nice to meet you too."

" So, since we like to get to know our new neighbors, what brought you here? For business, perhaps?" 

"A vocation actually...although I'm still working, so maybe yeah..for business too."

"That's great, what kind of business you run?"  
He says taking the cup of coffee to take a sip.

"Design & Games development, the K.S. Branch." 

He moves the cup away, squinting his eyes.

"K.S. Holdings? You mean the businessman Kim Sehun's Holdings?" 

"Yes, glad that you know my father." She's says and raises her cup of coffee and drinks.

Hearing that, he stills and looks with a straight expressions, feeling shocked.

"You're father?" He asks in disbelief. 

"Yeah." Jisoo adds a little bit amused at his reaction. 

"Of course I know him! His trademark is very well known here." Matthew exclaimes suddenly, changing his previous expressions. "We were actually hoping that we would cooperate with your company one day, with your father I mean." He finishes with lowering his tone at the end.

"Really? My dad was thinking of investing on Jeju Island as well."

"What a beautiful coincidence." He adds with a broad smile.

Matthew then introduces himself further and talks about their business; his father owns a fishing and shipping company under the name of Park holdings, and he is now its CEO, in other words, his father's representative.

Jisoo and Matthew continue with their conversation. Most of it was about work and how profitable it will be to both companies if they cooperate together, Matthew tries to prolong the conversation and gain admiration on the pretext that he introduces her to the different and beautiful areas of Jeju Island since she's still new to them, so he invites her to dinner as an opportunity to discuss business matters as well. Their conversation ends with Jisoo agreeing to the invitation, and the date to be after three days.

.

.

.

.

.

"Jisoo..Kim. Jisoo Kim..even her name is beautiful.." Matthew mumbles to himself, sitting on the sofa opposite his bed, which is a distance away from him. In the darkness of the room, which includes some dim light from the outside, he dives into his private world thinking what an angel he saw today.

She is like the first of her kind. Beautiful, educated, charismatic, and above all, her father is Kim Sehun.

'Unfortunately.'

No wonder her servant didn't welcome his men. 

She also told him that she runs one of the departments of their company, what was it? Something related to the games..uh yes..the games development and design department.

A sheepish smile forms on his face.

Despite his assertive and fearful appearance, Matthew actually has zero resistance to beautiful women. This made him get fooled by many who wanted to use him for his money, and he learned his lesson and didn't get into any relationship for a long time, nor a serious one. Well..at least this's how it was until he met Jisoo. All his decisions and composure withered without him even realizing it.

His track of thoughts gets cut when suddenly the light turns on and finds his father standing at the door, looking displeased.

"What is this? Whoever sees this room thinks he entered a garbage!"

"Dad!" Matthew says as he gets up with a fake smile, ignoring his father's remark.

"For whom I owe this beautiful surprise?"

"Stop playing and tell me, how is he?"

"Oh..the man..yeah. I hate to break it to you, but he's just a wealthy man who wanted to spend his vacation here and will return to his miserable life once it ends, nothing else is interesting about him."

"So in other words, he's not a threat."

Matthew nods and his father stares at him a little and then truns around and goes out.

There's no way he's going to tell this fool about anything about her, especially the fact that she's the daughter of Kim Sehun. 

'Not this time dad. I cannot allow you to destroy another life.'

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

"Any news about that matter?"

"Until now there is nothing." Min Yoo answers as he stands beside Jisoo who is sitting behind her desk.

"For the passed three days, we looked at most care homes and foster houses for people with special needs, and we didn't find any match for the specifications of girls in the records. "

"This's strange. Is it possible that they might never entered one?"

"Probably, however, we will continue searching." He pauses for a second and departs. "Umm, can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead." She says, busy turning and checking the papers on her desk.

"Why do you care so much about them? I mean, you look after them very much, isn't this a bit too much for people you just met?"

Jisoo stops what she is doing and wanders off with her eyes as if she's thinking.

"Hmm..I don't know, should there be a strong reason to help someone?"

"Of course not! But.. how do I say it? You literally gave them your house to live in.. this is not-"

"When I was young, my father used to buy me a Barbie doll every time he missed my birthday or a show at school I had a role in." Jisoo interrupts with a calm tone. 

"At that time, I had a group of them, they were beautiful and so I loved them and didn't argue with my father about not attending any of the events. I was putting them in front of me and look at them as if they were real, I gave them names too." She chuckles remembering that.

"I brush their hair and choose beautiful clothes for them, I used to enjoy doing that." She says with remorseful expression on her face.  
" I think this is similar to it in a way..the girls, I mean. Besids, it's quite boring here..don't you think?" She finishes with a wide smile.

Min Yoo nods to her, ignoring the question marks that popped into his head.

He knows that what she meant is that she loves to care for others, well..particular others obviously because back in Seoul she doesn't act this way, but whoever hears her now will think that she's some kind of a psycho, treating them like her toys.

There's only one thing he's sure of; Jisoo is such a complicated person with a complicated personality.

After they finish work, Jisoo walks towards the office door with Min Yoo following her. And once she opens it, she encounters Jennie, coming from the third floor.

They seem to be meeting like this a lot.

Jisoo stills while she stares at Jennie, who was doing the same.

When he sees them like this, Min Yoo tells Jisoo that he would head down first and leaves them alone.

Jisoo begins to approach Jennie, walking towards her with a steady steps with her expressions fixed, and a sharp gaze. Until she gets close to Jennie and stops, leans forward a little as she looks at the sides her of face. Surprisingly, Jisoo holds Jennie's chin and tilts it up a little, her eyes travel from Jennie's forehead down to her jaw, looks like she is searching for something.

"It seems that the scratches have almost disappeared.. good."

Jisoo says as she moves her hand away to then she turns around and heads down stairs, leaving Jennie confused, holding her chin as she looks lost.

Is this what she wanted? She was about to think that she had discovered something about her!

What is wrong with her? She has been like this for the passing three days, When she sees her, she just stares at her with cold gaze and doesn't talk much. Well, it's not like she were talking a lot, but there is something different about her now. 

Is she mad at her for what happened in the back yard? Did she across the line with her? She can't think of anything else that she did other than this! Okay..so maybe she did across the line but that was..

A bad idea.

Without being aware of herself, she changes her hand placement from her chin to her cheek.

Even if it was for a few seconds, she can swear she saw her smiling, she was having fun too. Apparently, she was wrong and that she was the only one who felt like that.

Ah..Why does she busy her mind with it? she can feel whatever the hell she wants. She doesn't care.

. . . . . . . . 

Jennie arrives to the living room and finds Jisoo sitting on the sofa, with Chaeyoung in front of her, sitting on the ground. Her back rests on Jisoo's legs while she's doing a braid for Chaeyoung who's holding bag of chips and is watching the movie shown on TV, Frozen.

What is that? Since when they become this close? She noticed this since yesterday, Chaeyoung had just gone out of the shower and was lazy to have her hair done. When Jisoo saw her like that, she just went and did her hair for her!

Like..hello? Chaeyoung has two hands, she can do it for herself!  
And now she's braiding her hair? While she doesn't even smile for Jennie anymore? 

She turnes to Lisa, who was sitting on the nearby sofa while she was watching the movie too, and goes and sits next to her while she looks at Jisoo grimly.

Jisoo furrows as she feel some kind of bad energy surrounds her as she finishes braiding Chaeyoung's hair.

'Why did I just get the chills?'

After finishing her bag of chips, Chaeyoung sneaks towards Lisa who was so immersed in the movie to notice her and takes the bowl of chips in front of her then she returns to her place. And Jennie was watching the whole thing. 

'I swear Lisa is on some kind of crack.'

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

In her room, Jisoo stands in front of the mirror as she prepares herself and puts the final touches of makeup on her face.

Matthew is supposed to come around eight o'clock, which means in less than an hour. Although Jisoo had agreed to his invitation to dinner, she's still not sure of her desire to go, wondering what prompted her to agree in the first place, is it because she feels bored? Curiosity perhaps? Or just a way of a get back? 

Really, What is she doing? When Matthew invited her , for a moment she thought it was a good opportunity to return the betrayal. Now she realizes that it was a hasty decision from her, and..well, a childish one. It is not as if he would somehow know that She's on a date with another man! He doesn't care at all, and their relationship is over. And it's not like she cares too anyway.

She can't go back on her words now, enough thinking about useless things. This is just a business dinner.

.

.

.

.

.

.

(In Seoul)

"Hey !! Hey !! Here! I'm here !!"

"Stop screaming. We are in a fine restaurant, would you calm down?" He says as he drags his friend towards the table.

"Oh, come on, what's wrong with you? We haven't met since high school, of course. I would be eager to meet you!"

"Well, I understand. Just lower your voice."

They reach the table which his friend previously reserved for them and take their seats. After the dinner plates are laid, his friend turns his attention to him.

"So! What you been up to?"

-"nothing." he answers coldly. 

"How're you doing?"

-" Fine."

"Your business?"

-"Going very well."

"Ladies and gentlemen, we reached the end of tonight's episode , and we will meet you again tomorrow in the next episode!" His friend exclaims raising his arm as if he is talking to an audience. 

"Hey! what are you doing?" He says in a whisper feeling the eyes of other costumers on them.

"What am I doing? Ask yourself! Are we in an interview? What's with these short answers? Really, I'm starting to feel like you didn't want to come." His friend replies, kind of looking sad.

\- "Oh, don't be like that! I'm just tired of work, and you know me, if I really don't want to here, I simply won't." He states firmly.

"Anyway, what's the important thing that you asked to meet me for?"

\- "As expected! That's all you care about!" His friend adds and he just rolls her eyes.

"Just talk."

"Umm..you know about the Inkigayo festival that will be held next month?"

"You mean the dance event? What about it?" He says as he start eating his dinner.

"Our family will participate in it."

\- "Good for-"

"With Kim Jisoo." 

He stops eating as soon as he hears the name.

-" What?"

"Kim Jisoo will be my dance partner, I mean, not yet, but-"

"She will participate in the party? Kim Jisoo? No way! She cannot tolerate such gatherings. Who told you this?" He scoffs with a fake smile that indicates sarcasm and disbelief.

\- "Oh..nobody, I found her name among those who were invited to the party and who will also participate. And, well, our company is now in a critical state and being with Kim Jisoo as my partner will help us a lot. So I invited her, my intuition tells me that she will agree." His friend says smiling with contentment.

"And why are you telling me this, Jackson?" He says with a dry tone.

\- "Because..hmm, I already knew that you were in a relationship, so I want to make sure-"

"It doesn't matter. You said it. We were in a relationship, meaning there is nothing between us now! You don't have to worry." He says in a stressed tone, irritated.

\- "Well, okay, calm down..as you say, JinYoung." Jackson says it with a malicious smile on his face while Jin Young was looking at his plate.

"Oh, then let's finish our dinner!"

.

.

.

.

.

.

Standing next to the window, looking outward, Jennie keeps taking deep breaths and let it out. Her way of relaxing and clearing her mind.

Her eyes wanders away from the sky until she sees a luxury car heading towards the mansion.

She heard that Jisoo will go out this evening for a work date, is that it? She can't see him from here, He looks rich too. What is she saying? Of course he will be rich like her too!

There's no way a girl like her would want to go out with just anybody.

She sighs and moves away from the window, thinking she might go and take a walk around the back garden for some time.

. . . . . . . . 

Matthew enters the main gate of the mansion to the parking lot, gets out of his luxury car and sees Min Yoo standing, waiting for him.

"Welcome, Mr. Matthew. Come this way with me."

\- "No..no, I'll wait for her here."

"Are you sure? The maid is on her way to inform her of your arrival, it will only take seconds." 

\- "Yes, I'm sure." He says with a gentle smile. "The weather is nice here, a few seconds won't hurt." 

"As you like."  
.  
.  
.  
.

"I am glad that you liked it here."  
Matthew turns around once he hears her husky voice and playful tone as she approaches him, and he freezes there for a moment, looking at her with amazed eyes.

'Breathtaking.'

She walks closer to them and stands next to Min Yoo. In front of her, Matthew stands looking at her with eyes almost glistening at her beauty.

"Kim Jisoo, good evening to you..

You look so beautiful" He says as he takes Jisoo's hand and prints lightly kiss on the back of her hand.

"Good evening, Matthew, thanks for waiting."

"My pleasure." He says leaving her hand gently. "So, if we're finished here, would we start going? I'd like to show you a lot of places while we're going to the restaurant."

"Wait? So we're not going directly to the restaurant?"

\- "Oh, of course if you want-"

"Then I will drive!" Jisoo interrupts him with an enthusiastic tone, trying not to look too excited.

" What? No, no ... I'm the one who invited you, I'm the one who should drive." 

"Matthew, it's already decided." She states confidently and he tries to talk with her and convince her otherwise but she doesn't seem to be listening anymore. It's no use.

Who ho knows her, knows her love for driving and taking the lead, and it's not limited to driving cars, but leading and pioneering in everything. She loves speed and cannot hide her enthusiasm once any subject related to this, is opened.

Matthew keeps opposing her to let them go in his car and Jisoo keeps insisting that they would go in her private car, the Porsche, which she had always wanted to drive on an exploratory tour. Leaving Matthew with no choice but to accept. Watching Jisoo's smile, he decides to let her behave as she'd like on that date if she is going to smile like that.

Jisoo asks Min Yoo to retrieve the car keys that are in her office's desk drawer. Min Yoo goes away from them, and Matthew moves to stand next to Jisoo, describing where they will go.

. . . . . . . . 

Min Yoo heads to the office, and takes wide steps at the stairs so that he won't be late. He enters the office and takes the keys and goes out.

Closing the door, his phone rings and he raises it to see who's calling.

It's Kim Sehun, Jisoo's father.

He stills for a second, surprised. It must be important, otherwise why would he call him on his private phone, and not Jisoo?

Min Yoo, despite spending half his life with the Kim family and getting used to them and despite his age, he still keeps his manners and the border between the servant and his master.

And he can't answer the call without being late for his lady, Jisoo.

He pauses momentarily until he sees Jennie coming from downstairs. He stops her quickly and hands her the keys and tells her to go to the front yard quickly to give them to Jisoo and stresses that she should go and speed up now. As soon as he tells her, he raises the phone and answers the call and heads back to the office.

"Oh yes sir, I'm with you."

Jennie stands stunned, trying to understand what just happened, until she does and she rushes downstairs.

. . . . . . . . .

Jisoo and Matthew are waiting for Min Yoo to come with the keys. After Matthew finishes his talk about the places they're going to visit, silence prevails between them, but it is not an uncomfortable silence. Jisoo was looking at the sky and sometimes she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, leaving the fresh air entering all the cells of her body. It's same case to Matthew except that he doesn't look at the sky but rather at Jisoo whenever she closes her eyes, and when she opens them, he turns his gaze toward the trees quickly.

Jisoo's phone rings, breaking the silence and she takes it out from her bag.

. . . . . . . . .

Jennie, who was about to get out from the mansion, hears the sound of the phone ringing. Turning her attention to the direction of the sound, she sees Jisoo answering the phone, and next to her, a man with white hair is standing. Both of them were standing opposite of each other while Jisoo's back is facing her. They are kind of far from her and so she cannot see his face very well. She approaches them, getting more closer and the more she gets closer to them the more she becomes more curious and suspicious about the man.

Was he the one who was in the car before? 

'seems familiar..'

Why does she feel like She has seen him befo-

Jennie freezes in her place when the identity of the man in front of her becomes clear to her as he take notice of her presence too.

"Jennie?"

—————————-  
To be continued   
—————————-


	7. Jennie’s Past

A/N : 🎶▶️ : Play the suggested song/music.  
🎶⏸ : stop the song.

——————————————

Chapter 7

🎶▶️ Misfortune - The Great Seducer OST.

It's funny how life slaps you every time you think your suffering has come to an end, as if it were telling you:

'We're just getting started.'

In fact, I knew that this wouldn't last. But a small part inside me, wanted to believe so bad, that I will finally.. live.

But who am I fooling? Every person was born in this world, with their life already decided and destined for them, some of us are destined to live it with prosperity, others are destined to spend it with disease and the other with poverty while others live it in the dark side, in criminality and harming others. Although I believe that the last one is not something destined but rather a mess of a bad choices and circumstances, what surrounds them and the people around them somehow made them turn to this side.

And I was destined to live among people who gave me nothing but pain. All they knew was take, and give was only for themselves.

They all wanted something from me in return! All of them reached out to me and had something they would like to have, altered motives and disgusting intentions. Even that old man who owned the pastry shop, who saw me looking at the candy with sadness and gave me some of it. after which I discovered, After he put his hand on my head and then slide it to my neck in a weird way, I realized something inside my head: My father doesn't touch me like this, that that man only saw fresh fruit and wanted to harvest it before anyone.

I was 8 years old and I didn't know what it meant and why he was touching me in a strange way, but my senses and all the cells in my body were telling me to get away immediately and run, to run with all my strength without turning back and so..I ran. I ran to the farthest place I know, ran and ran until my feet weakened. Years after, I grow up and knew then that what I had experienced was sexual harassment and was against a child as well.

'Disgusting asshole.'

I hated sweets ever since, and I didn't stop in front of any sweets shop after that. kept passing them by, without even looking.

I hated all the men who looked like friendly fathers but in reality they were only hungry wolves, I hated their grins and I felt disgusted whenever they were claiming kindness. If only I could burn them all and clean this world from them.

My father on the other hand, drowned himself in drinking soon after my mother passed away, drowning in his sorrows. At the beginning I didn't care much about the matter. I thought that he would get back as he used to be once he gets used to my mother's death and that time would be enough for that, just like how my mother always used to say, but it was getting worse and worse over time.

His irresponsible actions and his neglect for his duties caused his dismissal from work. And the remaining money we had was going to his drinks and gambling games. So I had to find something quickly along with my studies to support myself and to stay in school. After all, it was the only thing that separated me from those uneducated, empty narrow minded people.

I had neither the time nor the energy to care for anyone else. Despite the confessions I got in high school, I didn't care about any of them. In the end, I knew exactly what they wanted from me.

By the time I was sixteen years old, I started working as a waitress in a restaurant near our village, the money I was getting was enough to buy one meal, I had no other choice but to continue with it. I reduced my expenses and also my meals to only small one, which made me lose a lot of weight.

I didn't buy new clothes unless the old ones become weary and raptured. Despite this, I took good care of my clothes, I didn't like them to look worn out or dirty, so I always washed and ironed them and put them in a clean place. I was poor but not homeless. My clothes were old and cheap but tidy.

This continued until my father started working with those people, he started coming with a lot of money. Money in that amount and in that short time although he was just at the start of his work, of course, is not from patient care or normal work. He would hide it under his pillow whenever he sleeps so that no one could take it. However, I had to steal from him once to pay the electricity bill since he was not giving me anything from it. It was all spent on bears. Even sometimes I had to go to their place and bring him from there when he stayed too long for the night.

His debts increased, and our house became known in the village because the people who wanted their money kept coming a lot. The house wages accumulated and the owner of the house was threatening us every time to throw us out.

At first, I managed with the money I was saving, but it wasn't enough. I had to work more and so I left school while I was in my senior year of high school to work as a waitress in a club. Yes, a nightclub, this time the salary was much more than my previous work yet I didn't leave it.

I had to adapt to the atmosphere of that place and to the eyes of hungry men towards me. Ironically, the girl who was running away with just a hand touch is now accustomed, she stopped running away and learned if any hand was extended to her..she would break it.

Sometimes in the middle of those nights, I used to return from work and find my father passed out at the door, drunk. Apparently , he couldn't do it to the inside. I Pull him inside and change his clothes, wipe his face and chest with a piece of wet clothes and put him in bed. After all that happened, he was still my father and I couldn't stand the smell of alcohol, nor his miserable appearance, remembering how he was a respected man once and had a face in the village.

At some point in my life, I thought, what if I stopped breathing and ended all this nonsense? I'm not obligated to live this way for my entire life. Why should I suffer? Why can't I be happy? Fuck happiness! Why can't I just live without worrying about tomorrow and what if it will be the last night I will sleep on my bed? I don't even remember the last time I truly, genuinely smiled.

I tried to kill myself but I couldn't do it. Suddenly, the love for life poured into me, and I was scared to end it. Ha, how pathetic I am? Still having this spirit with this miserable life. Despite my great hatred for it and the great eagerness to leave it, I couldn't do it.

It was so sad that I didn't feel the hot water drops on my cheeks until the air hit me. I was crying..crying for myself and feeling pity for her. I hated her weakness and cowardice, I hated her for how helpless she is, I hated her for her love for life despite all that.

I hated her and hated all those around me; I hated the ice cream seller who always annoys me with his ridiculous music every morning; I hated our neighbor who always comes to ask for something that he lacks while I am most in need, I hated my teacher for how she was giving the wealthy students high grades so easily while I was working my ass off every single chance I got to study and pass! How she put those useless selfish students at the same level as me!

I hated them all. 

I hated everyone, but from all of them..I hated myself the most.

And to make it perfect, the cherry on top as they say, my father decided to steal the person he works for and escape, that simple. All he left was a message telling me to run away immediately.

I was very confused and didn't know what was meant by it and why I had to run away. Until I heard the door knocking hard and men screaming and demanding that my father go out and return them the ten million dollars. It took me seconds to realize that my miserable life was already over.

It was miserable, but there was no threat to me except to starve and it was something I could avoid with the money I got. I didn't expect that the day would come when I would struggle to keep it.

Now, and at this very moment, all these feelings and memories that I thought have gone, have returned to me. 

🎶⏸  
. . . . . . . . . 

**

A year ago. In the day that Matthew took over his father's work. They were holding a noisy party at the beach. The place was surrounded by barrels in which the fire was lit. When two men came while they were pulling another man who was bruised and blood was all over his face, he couldn't open his eyes from the large number of beating he suffered. They came and threw the man under Matthew's feet. Which made him startle and get up from his seat.

"Who is this? What are you doing? Why is he like this?" Matthew says angrily.

The two men look at each other and one of them starts:  
"Sir, this man is an addict and he tried to steal from the goods and we caught him on site. Your father sent him to you to finish him!"

"Finish him? What do you mea-"

He pauses when he understands what he means, his father wants to end the life of this man on his hands. He wants to make sure whether Matthew will fulfill the work requirements or not. This is a test whether or not he is qualified for his position.

Matthew's attention returns to reality when the man puts the gun in his hand and then puts the man they want to kill in front of him on his knees as an indication for Matthew to kill him.

He saw his father several times taking the lives of others in front of his eyes with all cold blood, but this time it's different. This time they're asking him to do it himself.

As he slowly raises the gun towards the man, Matthew thinks that now he is the head of this organization and sooner or later he will have to do it, trying to convince himself.

His hands are shaking a bit and his forehead is sweating, his pulse is accelerating. And his index finger hovers near the trigger and moves away and then back on it, hesitate. He says to himself that he has to pull it together, he must become strong or he will not survive in this kind of world if he remains the same. 

Meanwhile, Jennie comes to this place in search of her father. It's already passed midnight and her father didn't comeback yet. She arrived here after searching for several places known for those people before and didn't find him. She sees a house at a distance from her , rounded with burning barrels in the front at the opposite side and decides to go check it out as well.

Jennie arrives at the house and begins to search around him until she hears the noise behind the house, she turns around the house and sees a group of men gathered, between them a man sitting on his knees, swaying until he is about to fall and one of the men catches him and adjusts his sitting. 

Jennie's eyes widen and she panics, feeling her heart as if it's s almost out of his place when she recognizes the man in front of her. 

It's her father.

Another man is standing in front of him with a gun pointed at him, Jennie finds herself running towards her father involuntarily.

. . . . . . . . 

"Dad! Dad! No! Stop!! Please stop!"

Matthew lowers his hand when a girl throws herself in front of the man sitting in front of him as she hugs him and screams at them to stop and to move away from him.

It was surprising and happened fast, which made everyone in a state of shock until one of the men besides her father tries to get her away from him while she's still screaming, crying.

The girl keeps trying to loosen herself from the man's grip and goes to protect her father until the man kicks her in the stomach, making her fall to the ground writhing in pain. When Matthew sees that, he shouts at him loudly to stop and move away from her. The girl puts her hand on her stomach and runs back to her father, afraid they would harm him any moment.

"Sir! why did you stop me? We have to kill him! This is the orders from your fathe-"

The man falls dead on the ground when Matthew suddenly points the gun at him and pulls the trigger, right in the middle of his head. Making the girl startle and everyone to freeze in their place, shocked by what Matthew just did. Eyes burning with anger, hands still trembling, he didn't like this man from the beginning.

"You! Move away from him immediately!" He says turning his attention to the girl.

\- "Please! Don't kill him! Whatever debt he's in I will pay it! Just don't kill him!" The girl says as she hides her father behind her back, tears still falling from her eyes. 

Matthew stays silent for a moment, staring at her as if he's thinking and then turns his gaze to the men.

"Does any of you know who she is? And why is she here?"

One of the men raises his hand and steps forward.

"Sir, it's his daughter, I've seen her several times before and she comes to take him home with her when he's too drunk."

Matthew brings his attention back to her, staring at them.

"Take him away from my sight and leave. Immediately!"

The girl nods quickly, and puts her father's arm around her shoulder and tries to lift it, resists the pain of the blow as she supports her father weight and before getting further, Matthew calls on her to stop and looks at her with intimidating eyes.

"You know what will happen to you two if any of what happened now reaches the people or the police, don't you?"

She shakes her head up and down immediately with her tears still running. She turns around and go and Matthew turn his eyes to the men.

"It's the same for you! He wanted me to kill someone and I did. Just tell him that, clear?"

He turns his attention to the man who told him about the girl and departs: "you! Tell me. where do you know that man?"

\- "I used to work with him when your father used to ask from us to receive the goods."

" And..?"

\- "He was good at his job and your father trusted him, so I doubt that he tried to steal from the goods. He is a drinking addict and when he is drunk he always talks about his family. His name's Hyonsan and his daughter's is.."

**

"Jennie?"

"Oh yes.. ok..well goodbye." Jisoo says ending her conversation and then she hangs up and turns to Matthew.

"Sorry, I didn't hear you, did you say something?"

Matthew stands shocked, looking at Jisoo and then back at Jennie who was standing at a distance behind her.

"Came..Sh- she came!"

He says louder than his normal tone as he points to Jennie, Jisoo turns around and sees Jennie standing, her face looks pale. 

she notices the car keys in her hand.

"Did he send you instead?" Jisoo says as she approaches Jennie. "Where's Min Yoo?  
Aah, I'll just deal with him later." She digresses and sighs, taking the keys from Jennie's hand and thanks her. 

Jennie turns around, on her way to go when Jisoo notices her tense walk and her shivering hands and stop her immediately making her turn back.

"Are you okay? Did something happen? Why are you shaking like that?"

Jennie looks at Jisoo and swallows hard, then steals a look at Matthew and finds him looking at her with dark sharp gaze, to then she looks back at Jisoo, and shakes her head, no, and signs to her an Ok sign.

"Are you sure?"

Jennie nods and bows to her to then she turns around quickly, and starts walking away with fast steps. Jisoo keeps looking at her direction, still worried, until Matthew calls her, drawing her attention.

"Well, shall we go now?" He says with an enthusiastic tone.

"Ah..yeah..let's go."

He smiles and stretches out his hand, as a sign for her to go first. Until she does, he stops smiling and looks at the direction in which Jennie walked in, angrily. To then he follows Jisoo.

. . . . . . . . . 

Jennie runs hastily into her room and closes the door behind her firmly. She falls on her knees with her hands covering her face. Unable to hide their shivering any more, unable to keep her composure as she starts to panic with her eyelids not even blinking. She can't pretend that nothing has happened. 

It's him! She's done for, he found her! He knew her whereabouts!

Why did he pretend that he doesn't know her? Will he tell Jisoo? What is she gonna do now? 

'God! Tell me what to do?'

She doesn't know what will happen when Jisoo returns, she doesn't know what expression will be on her face. 

'Where would I go?'

"Oh..yes ... I will lock the door of my room! So no one will come! Ha ha-ha" She laughs hysterically and then starts crying for seconds and then stops suddenly and slaps her cheek.

"Stop it, Jennie! This is not the time to cry! I have to act! I have to find a way!"

She gets up and goes to Lisa and Chaeyoung's room. Suddenly, she opens their door and steps in to find each one on her bed and on their lap a plate of nuts. Both of them still, looking surprised by Jennie's sudden entry.

"Yaa!, what are you doing going in like this?" Lisa says, annoyed.

"Later! Listen to me now...He found me!"

"What? What do you mean? Who found you?" Chaeyoung asks, starting to get worried over how Jennie looks so troubled.

"The men who are looking for me." Jennie answers, breathing heavily. "Their leader, was here! with Jisoo! And he saw me here! Now he knows where I am!"

"Just a moment, do you mean the mafia men? Their leader was here? And now he knows you're here.." Lisa says in a calm tone to understand the situation.

Jennie nods quickly, looking terrified.

Lisa and Chaeyoung exchange looks a little, then Lisa puts the nuts dish aside and slides under the blanket as if she is going to sleep and so does Chaeyoung.

"If you're done, turn off the light behind you when you go out." Lisa says from under the blanket.

"Don't forget to lock the door too." Chaeyoung adds, agreeing.

"Are you serious? This's not the time to joke!  
Lisa! Chaeyoung! I really need your help!"

No answer..

"Okay! So that's how it is." she says with teary eyes, frustrated. "I will act alone then!"

Jennie goes out and closes the door behind her forcefully.

Once she exits, Chaeyoung lifts the blanket off her head and gets up partially, so that the lower part of her body is still under the blanket, and she turnes to Lisa.

"Hey, Lisa.. Don't you think we were a little bit harsh on her?"

Lisa moves the blanket away and sits up, same as Chaeyoung.

"I know.. but what do you expect us to do? We should not get involved with this! They're a criminal organization for heaven's sake!"

"Nevertheless..shouldn't we help her? You saw how terrified and afraid she was."

"Chaeyoung, don't even try..we cannot effort getting involved with such people!"

Chaeyoung stays silent while looking at Lisa grimly, disapproving.

"Chaeyoung! Promise me that you're not going to do anything."

Chaeyoung turns her head to the other side, annoyed.

"Chaeyoung!"

"Okay! Fine!" She says in discontentment as she lies down again and covers herself fully with the blanket. 

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Jisoo and Matthew are in the car on their way to the restaurant after stopping in several areas before it. While Jisoo is driving based on Matthew's instructions, Matthew was looking out of the window, feeling furious, putting his elbow on the armrest and passes his index finger and the middle finger along his lips while he's Thinking.

'Jennie, you little bitch.'

So there where she was hiding. Throughout this whole time, she was in front of them and they couldn't even notice.

He should have killed her when he had the chance.

"Matthew.."

He shouldn't have brought him back to work.

"Mr. Matthew!"

Matthew notices Jisoo's calling, urging him to turn quickly, smiling, changing his facial expressions.

"Uh..I apologize. I was a little carried away. What's wrong?"

\- "We have reached a crossroads. Should I turn left or right now?" Jisoo says as she turns his attention back to the road.

"Left, please."

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

At eleven o'clock, Jennie in her room sitting in the middle of her bed, lifting her knees to level of her chest and putting her head between her legs.

When she hears the sound of high heels clicking, she knows it's Jisoo.

She is back!

Jennie gets up quickly and stands behind the door and putting her ear close to it, she hears the sound of a door opening and closing. Apparently, she has entered her room. 

If he had told her, she would have rushed to her room by now or she would have thrown her out or God knows what.

Why didn't he tell her? And why was he at Jisoo's mansion in the first place? How does he know her?

'Damn!' 

What does this even mean? What's going on? She's going crazy!

This mansion is no longer a safe place for her, coming here with his men is just a matter of time. She have to be smarter and act before him, otherwise, even Jisoo will get hurt!

The only option available is to go outside Jeju Island. She doesn't have a passport and so she have to find someone who makes her one or go smuggling; and to do this she needs money. A lots of it!

'Damn, this leads me to only one thing.'

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

After midnight passes, in her dark room, Jennie lies in her bed, hiding her face with a blanket.

She hears the door handle moving and slides her hand under the pillow, preparing herself to get up quickly. The door is locked and whoever is there, he is now trying to open the lock. He succeeds and the door opens, she can feel him entering slowly and carefully.

Once he close the door, Jennie takes the cover off and pulls the knife from under the pillow, gets up quickly and stands beside the bed, swinging the knife left and right in the direction of the door.

"It's better for you to get away! before I put this knife right in your heart!" Jennie says in a sharp hissing voice. "I swear to god that I will do-"

Suddenly, the light turns on cutting off her threats and she standstills, shocked.

"Shhh..I'm Lisa! Lower your voice!"

She says, waving her hand down repeatedly while putting her index finger from the other hand in front of her mouth.

Jennie didn't wrap her head around what's happening yet, so she was still pointing the knife at Lisa as she looks at her.

"Lisa?! What are you doing here? And why are you sneaking into my room?"

"Because It's a secret matter?" Lisa mocks in a low tone. "Also, could you put the knife down already?! Where did you get it in the first place?"

\- "From the kitchen."

Lisa looks at her in disbelief.

"What? I have to be prepared for every possibility." Jennie says in a low stressed tone, then she departs."Tell me. Why are you here?"

"I will help you." Lisa declares as she takes slow steps towards Jennie.

"What-"

"But first, you have to promise me that Chaeyoung won't know about this." She adds firmly.

"And we will let her out of it."

—————————  
To be continued   
—————————


	8. [Special] - Lisa’s Past

Special Chapter: Lisa's past (along with Chaeyoung)  
———————————————————----

🎶▶️ K-Drama Time Various Artists: Longing In Your Heart 

Inside four walls and under a worn-out ceiling, I was laying down thinking that my mom will come back and take me. She always forgets me when we go together to the local market but she always comes back. And this time too, she will definitely return.

A day has passed..

two days..

three..

a week..

Month..

I was still waiting. Something important must had happened at home, so she couldn't come. I didn't know why that woman would not believe me. Whenever I told her about that, she laughed and said that I was dreaming. She was wrong, I wasn't dreaming because in my dream, I was in our house with my mother, and not in this weary place.

She was a strange woman, her voice was loud and always shouting. She never changed her clothes; a long black dress, a white veil and a necklace shaped like a cross on her chest. There were others here who wore like her.

They must been out of money, that they couldn't effort buying new clothes. I felt pity for them and wondered if they were waiting for someone to take them too.

'How silly I was.'

Lucky me, I wasn't the only one there, there were other kids with me.

I loved playing games with them and moving around a lot and apparently, that woman didn't like this. So she used to beat me or prohibit me from dinner or make me clean the house. Every time she punished me I would smile and she would hit me more, I didn't know what was wrong with her? Is smiling that bad?

If it were bad, my mom wouldn't tell me to always smile. Sometimes I wanted to cry from the pain, but my mom told me not to allow anyone to see my tears. So I didn't.

I didn't cry but..I missed my mother so much.

It was okay to cry when everyone was asleep, right? Nobody could see me in the dark.

It has been a long time and I'm still here. My mom never came to take me back, thinking she must be tired. If she doesn't come to me, I will go to her. It will be a joyous moment for her if she saw me for sure. I was wondering how she would look like at the time; how her eyes would glisten when she smiles or the way the corner of her eyes would curl when she does. I wanted to see her a lot. But I had to get out of that place first.

I waited until midnight when everyone went to sleep, put a few of my clothes in a cloth and knot and put some bread and fruit in it. The ground wasn't able to contain me, I was so happy and excited, I was going to see my mom. 

Ha, such a naive kid. I still laugh at my little self whenever I remember that.

There was an abandoned room in that house that was used as a storehouse and at the door of the top window at the wall was broken, the size is somewhat small but I can pass through it. I put several boxes of those in the room and climbed them until I got to the window and tried to open it but the door was stiff. A few kicks and it opened. Either I was too strong or the wood was very worn out.

I went out and ran as fast as I could. I took the direction my mother took while she was leaving from here. Halfway I felt very sleepy and so I stopped a little by the side of the road. I took a spot among the trees and hid there. The next day I woke up, I ate a bit of the food that I took with me and then continued my path.

I arrived somewhere that was crowded with people and street vendors. Contrary to my expectations, I had no idea where to go or where I was. In my mind it was very clear; get out of that house and go find my mother and then go home together.

When I used to go out to buy sweets, I used to go out alone and come back. I knew the way home, but then, nothing seemed familiar at all.

I thought it's okay. I would just keep searching until I find her.

Two days passed while I was searching..I didn't know where to go and the food that I had had run out. I was feeling very thirsty and my vision became blurry. I entered one of the alleys, I was tired from walking and so I decided to lean on the trunk of a tree that seemed to have been cut recently that was at the end of the alley.

I sat down with my back against it and closed my eyes for a few moments to then I fell into a deep sleep. When I woke up I found a little girl with a bottle of water in her hand squatting, staring at me. She didn't say anything, she was just staring at me.

Someone was calling her. From the way he was calling her, tenderly, I could tell he was her father.

As soon as her father saw her, he quickly came and carried her, telling her not to go alone again. The feeling of thirst came back again, so I extended my hand to take the bottle of water, but the girl was holding onto it tightly. When her father saw us like that, he laughed and told me that if I wanted to take something, I had to ask its owner first and then he gave me the bottle. I drank it all until the last drop.

Her father looked down to me and asked me about my name and age.

"LaLisa, 8 years old."

I told him, and he smiled warmly, and told me how beautiful my name is. He then asked me about my family and when I told him I was looking for them, he stopped smiling and looked at me sadly. I was wondering why would he look at me like that? I didn't tell him something sad. He started caressing his daughter's head while he looked at both of us. He kneeled down to my level and asked me if I wanted him to go search with me for my family. I agreed and we went together. The night came and we couldn't find them.

Again..nothing.

He told me then that he would take me with him to their house so that if my family came looking for me, they would come and take me from there and until that time I can live with them.

"By the way, my daughter's name is Chaeyoung, be good friends, okay?" He said to me softly as we were going home.

I started to live with them and they were very good to me and kind, unlike that woman. Their family consisted of Chaeyoung and her parents only. Her father had a little booth in which he sell bread, and her mother was baking for him. Sometimes I would help her carrying it while Chaeyoung was just eating or stealing pieces from it to eat it later and her mother used to scold her and forbid her to do so, but she wasn't listening.

Chaeyoung wasn't very accepting of my presence with them at the beginning but soon after she got used to it and even started approaching me to play together, she was very kind to me and allowed me to take her toys and sleep in her room too. I noticed that she loves to eat a lot and so I started stashing some bread for her every time her mother baked and she was very happy with that.

Few years later, I stopped obsessing about finding my family and learned that the place I was in was a monastery for orphans and homeless children.

I adapted to my new family. I adapted to them as if they were my actual parents, my true family, but I was still the same me and I still notice the smallest details and the slightest changes without making it show on my face or behavior. One of those changes was that Chaeyoung's mother was no longer in full health as before.

She was coughing a lot and was unable to get up or walk and stopped making bread. Sometimes I saw blood in the piece of cloth she coughed in but she used to hide it immediately. After the village doctor came and examined her, he told us that it was just a cold and she will become better once she continues on the medicine. I don't know why but for some reason, I didn't believe him at that time.

After that, Chaeyoung's father put a curtain that separates the place where her mother sleeps from us and told us not to come near her, no matter what happens, not to enter her room and not to use the things that she used.

The medicines that the doctor prescribed were expensive and not available in his clinic, so her father had to go to a pharmacy outside the village. The money he had from selling bread wasn't enough and he started selling stuff from the house and furniture, besides his wife's illness, he had to feed us.

The house became empty and the condition of Chaeyoung's mother was getting worse and worse and there was no money left in the possession of Chae's father. One day he came with a few pieces of bread, he told us that he found a job. After that I learned that he was lying, I saw him once when I was out, sitting on the side of the road with his hand extended to people.

Since he didn't tell us, I didn't tell Chaeyoung either, and I kept pretending to know nothing.

Another thing that I was pretending not to notice was that he too became ill. Chaeyoung's mother's disease must had been contagious. I can hear him coughing at night and I bet Chaeyoung could too. When she used to look at me with worried eyes, I smile and tell her everything will be fine.

One morning, when Chaeyoung was sleeping in her room, he called me to come see him - apparently he knew I was a morning person - and asked me not to enter the room and only stand at the door.

To then he asked me to throw him a matchbox, after I have done his request, he told me to take Chaeyoung when she wakes up and head out and never come back. He was very sick and so he was stopping to take a breath between every word and another. I felt cold in my limbs. My senses were telling me about the reason behind his request. But..what a little girl could do?

I took Chaeyoung and went out like he asked me to. We started walking and walking, and Chae kept telling me to come back, but I was ignoring her, holding her hand tight. The time went by and evening came and I wasn't aware of my myself when I went to sleep. When I woke up, I didn't find Chaeyoung next to me, I was stupid, I shouldn't have slept like that. It took me a while to realize her whereabouts.

I found myself running as fast as I could. When I got to the place where Chaeyoung's house was, Chaeyoung was sitting on her knees, watching their house all that was left of it was just the burnt wood. I had never seen her like that, her eyes were wide open and her mouth was slightly open.

I slowly walked towards her, I didn't know what to do. I remembered my mother's embrace when she left me at the monastery, I sat next to her and embraced her with so much strength and care. I hugged her as if she would disappear from me if I left her even for a moment. I hugged her as if I was apologizing to her because I couldn't do anything to prevent it. I felt her tears flowing on my neck and through my shirt. She cried until she no longer had the energy to cry anymore. And through all that, I held her tightly.

Without home, without money and without food, only us and our clothes that we wear. We got out of our village and headed to the village that is surrounded by forests at the end. Chaeyoung's father sometimes used to tell us about it and that it was a good and better place and that we will move to it as soon as we have enough money. He always spoke in plural so that I don't feel left out.

He always treated me like I was his own daughter.

At first, we managed from what were given to us, by the people of the village, but at some point they stopped giving us any. Perhaps because of how we looked, became worse, perhaps because we lived in the woods.

They all started avoiding us and no one wanted to take care of us. I don't know why I thought everyone was like Chaeyoung's father. This made me resort to other methods, I used to tell Chae that I was going to ask people for some food, but in reality I was stealing it from itinerant vendors. Chaeyoung would have preferred us to beg rather than steal and that just wasn't me.

The only mistake I made was leaving Chaeyoung alone. One day I left her next to a store to go look for some food and when I came back I didn't find her. I looked for her inside the store and didn't find her there either. Beside the store, there was a long and secluded alley. When I walked through it and reached its end I heard muffled sounds and something moving, I came close to see Chaeyoung on the floor and a man sitting on top of her, one hand on her mouth and the other hand trying to undress her.

At that moment, I felt the blood boiling in my veins. I only felt myself carrying a solid thing and beating his head with it. I beat him with all the strength I had, I beat him until the blood spread on my clothes. I came back to my senses when I heard Chaeyoung crying for me to stop. I threw the thing that was in my hand, which at the time it became clear to me that it was a rock. I pulled her by the hand and started running.

Chaeyoung was crying while holding her clothes, that was torn a little and asking me to stop. I was very angry with her, why did she follow him and why did she allow him to deceive her? I bet it was for something as trivial as food. I was so angry that I was about to slap her, but I stopped.

It wasn't her fault. It was my fault. I had to protect her and failed. If I didn't arrive at the right time then I don't know what would have happened to her.

I hugged her..I hugged her and promised her that I won't ever leave her alone again, that I won't let anyone gets near her again.

I made another hidden promise to myself, that I will do whatever it takes to make her happy and safe, whatever it takes.

By the time I was seventeen years old, I had learned how to broke into homes and food stores with poor protection. It helped me provide clothes and food. I didn't consider myself a thief because I was only stealing what I needed. We didn't have a home and all that I managed to make was a tent for the two of us which we setted up in the woods. Despite the people' fear of it, it was a safe place.

After that I tried to sneak into the cinema and I succeeded. I mastered the method and started bringing Chaeyoung with me. There was a wide secondary ceiling in which you can lie down on it and you can reach it by climbing one of the pillars on which it settled. We used to lie down and watch, and while Chaeyoung was watching the movie and smiling, I was watching her smile and consider it as a sign of my success in fulfilling my promise.

She gave me a family..and that was the least I can do for her.

To someone to become the center of your universe, to be willing to give them everything you have, to feel a sense of belonging to them, to feel safe whenever you're with them even if you were under the roof of a tent, to feel pain and love every time you look at them. All of those things are nothing but an apology from the whole world for what it did to you.

A blessing.

I don't know why am I remembering this now. Is it because I feel guilty?

Seeing Chaeyoung's expression this night when Jennie came scared and when she asked us to help her, it made me wonder if I really kept my promise. For a moment, I saw the same expression she wore when her parents passed away.

Sad and restless.

I don't want her to get hurt, at the same time, I cannot bear to see that expression on her face again.

Dammnit! It seems I won't be able to sleep tonight.

🎶⏸  
——————————————-


	9. Tension Is High

Chapter 8

"Tell me you're joking..

Jisoo's safe? Are you crazy?"

Jennie sighs, goes and sits on the bed, looking up at Lisa, who is still standing.

"And do you have any other solution? Since I saw him and I'm trying to squeeze my brain out to find another, but ..nothing." Jennie says , running her hand through her hair helplessly.

Lisa stares at her for a moment, lowers her head a little, thinking, then looks back at Jennie.

"Did you ever thought about telling Jisoo?"

Surprised by her question, Jennie stays silent for moments looking at Lisa with a lost expression, they stare at each other in complete silence. 

"Of course not!" Jennie exclaims suddenly. "I..I can't." 

"Why not? I mean, it's Jisoo-"

"Do you want me to tell her to give me ten million dollars so that I could give it to men who deal with drugs and kill people because my father stole it from them and they are now asking for my head? Ah..and we were lying at her since the beginning? And do you expect that she will simply give it to us just like that?" Jennie rambles in one go, ironically.

\- "Ok..forget it." Lisa says as she sighs. "So what's your plan?"

"As far as we know, the safe is in her room, but we still don't know exactly where. And even if we know it, we have to find the secret code for it, but most of all..we have to find a plan to escape."

Lisa furrows her eyebrows in confusion.

"We'll escape?" Lisa says in a stretched low voice.

\- "No, after stealing the money we will sit and count it with her.." Jennie deadpans."Of course we'll need to escape!"

"Bitch I like it here, why would I escape?" Lisa snaps, denouncing.

"Fine! Then try not to get caught while you're helping me escape." 

Lisa stills looking at Jennie with a straight expression to then she smiles enthusiastically.

"Aah, I'm starting to feel like we are in a thriller! If one of them tried to attack us, I will show them my fighting skills!" She adds proudly.

"You know how to fight?"

"Of course! In the cinema, they used to show a lot of karate movies and I learned some movements!" Lisa says excitedly. "Actually it's one my secret talents.." she pauses a little and then she follows in a matter of fact: "beside being so attractive."

Jennie stays silent, squinting her eyes.

"Being attractive isn't a talent-"

"Would you like me to show you?" Lisa cuts in carelessly.

"No thanks-"

She ignores Jennie's response, and starts whooshing her arms left and right while lifting and swinging her legs.

"Hoo! Ha! Hey Ha! Ho!"

"Please stop," says Jennie wearing a desperate expression.

Lisa continues until her arm hit the wall, and she quickly pulls her towards her stomach out of pain, squatting.

"God I owe you this one." Jennie says jokingly while she looks at the ceiling and then gets up and goes towards Lisa, wanting to check on her.

Although she is able to move it, it still hurts whenever it's touched.

"Are you okay? I told you to stop." Jennie says as she extends her hand to Lisa.

\- "Oh, it's nothing..I won't allow such a small thing to come in the way of my thriller." Lisa says in a dramatically, taking Jennie's hand and getting up. Leaving Jennie wondering whether it was a good idea to ask for her help. 

It's probably not but..the need.

"Lisa, if someone tries to attack us, just pretend that you're dead." Jennie says with a dead expression.

\- "What? What about you?" Lisa asks genuinely curious.

"I will lie beside you and pretend that I'm dead too."

\- "That's sounds great!" Lisa chuckles carelessly.

"Lisa! Are you really serious about helping me?" Jennie snaps impatiently.

Lisa stops her dramatic mode quickly and puts up a serious expression on her face.

"of course not.." she exclaims making Jennie glare at her.

"Kidding.."

Keeps staring.

"Believe me, I'm dead serious.." Lisa states to assure Jennie, then she pauses for a moment and departs. "Well..not really to death, but like ..serious."

Jennie sighs deeply, puts her hand on her forehead, massages her a little, then turns to Lisa.

"Ok, now focus."

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Matthew at the marina monitoring the goods and shipments arrival and departure.

While he was looking at the sea, one of the men comes to him and tells him that his father is asking for him and then he leaves.

Matthew sighs with resentment and turns around and starts walking.

What a nuisance.

He will definitely eat his brain about the stolen money.

He stops and and slides his hand to his pocket and pulls a small card out, with the numbers and logo of the KS company printed on it. He looks at it a little and then continues walking.

There's no need to call to check if this is her personal phone number or not, of course she'll'll give him the business phone.

Sighing, he lets a long breath.

'Jennie..Jennie..Jennie..How did you manage to get to Jisoo?'

From Jisoo's behavior towards her, he can tell that their relationship is not bad. Where does she know her? What did she do for Jisoo to allow her to be there?

He can't tell Jisoo about her identity, or else she'll expose him too. He have to find another way to get her.

Damn, He shouldn't have killed him in front of her! 

'Jennie, because of you, I find myself falling in regret a lot lately. You just wait.'  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.  
.

After they had breakfast, Jisoo went to her office to work, while Chaeyoung and Lisa went to the living room to watch TV. 

Jennie was not with them at breakfast, which made Jisoo ask Lisa about the reason why, and she answered by signing that she was still sleeping.

While Chaeyoung was busy watching the movie, Lisa was looking around constantly, at the walls and corners with a focused gaze.

**

"First, we need to be sure whether the mansion has surveillance cameras or not, so I want you to check the first floor. And leave the third floor on me." Jennie says carefully in a low tone while they are both sitting in the bed, facing each other.

\- "Okay, what about Jisoo's room?" Lisa asks copying Jennie's tone.

"I have noticed that she often spends her time at the office working after breakfast, and this gives us enough time to search, however, one of us has to stay alert in case she finished her work early."

-"got it." Lisa nods in agreement.

**

. . . . . . . .

Jennie comes out of her room looking around at the walls, when she makes sure that there are no cameras around or someone, she heads towards Jisoo's room and tries to open it, but finds that it's closed.

As expected.

At the end, she doesn't trust them as she shows.

Jennie reaches out to her pocket and pulls out a hairpin she had borrowed from Lisa the night before. She puts it in the door lock and starts to unlock it..

**

"Lisa! How did you open the door? I'm sure I locked it before I went to bed!"

Lisa pulls something from the middle of her hair and raises it until Jennie can see it.

"With this!" she proudly says.

\- "Ooh.. Where did you learn that from?"

"let's just say that it's one of my other skills that I learned with intuition-"

\- "Just..just teach me." Jennie cuts in helplessly.

**

After few attempts, Jennie succeeds and unlocks the room. Once she opens the door, a sweet and cold smell hits her skin. Jennie stills in her place for moments while breathing in the smell, to then she enters.

For a moment there, she thought she had entered heaven.

She looks around the room with amazement, no words could describe it but royal. It smells the same as Jisoo's sleepwear, but stronger.

Jennie gets stuck on the smell that she forgets the reason she entered for, driven by the curiosity of what perfume Jisoo uses. She goes to the makeup table and looks at the cosmetics on the table, all of which are natural substances in addition to moisturizers for the skin but no trace of any perfume bottle. 

She checks the drawers, there's nothing also.

Where does this smell come from then? Unless her body contains a central perfuming system!

Wait..what is she doing? How did she went from searching for the safe to searching for perfume? 

'Damn!' 

There isn't much time for her, she needs to keep her focus on the plan.

She walks away from the makeup table and starts looking, looking behind the paintings, under the bed, and inside the wardrobe, but there is no trace of what she's looking for. Standing in the middle of the room with a wondering expression on her face, her eyes lay on the bookshelf in front of her. It has a rectangular, flat mirror in the middle that is a little bit to the inside of the shelf, surrounded by books to the right and left which are separated from the mirror by a wooden partition.

She heads towards it with her eyes examining its sides and starts to pull the books a little her side randomly, but nothing happens.

Standing and staring at the mirror, contemplating its borders, she notices that one side of the mirror is a distance away from the partition, a distance that differs from the other partition. She puts her hands on both sides of the mirror and tries to move it to one side, and again.. nothing happens.

She tries and press it with her hands on the sides of the mirror and as soon as she does she hears a slight click sound, and then the mirror slowly starts sliding to the right, revealing another hidden place inside the wall. Jennie stands surprised by what happened and smiles on her intelligence and success in finding it.

In the wall there are some shelves that contain files of multiple colors and to the left of them is what she's looking, the safe.

The safe is square in shape and has a keyboard for typing the secret code. Since she has completed the first part of the plan, there is no need to stay more. Again, she presses the mirror, and it slides back. She tidies the room, exits, and closes the door behind her and locks it.

"Well..that was easy." She says with a proud smile.

. . . . . . . . .

After many minutes passed watching TV, Lisa decides it's time to go check the rest of the first floor of the mansion and when she sees Chaeyoung is busy watching, she tries to get up but stops when a soft solid thing lands on her thigh.

She turns towards it and sees Chaeyoung has put her head on her thigh, on her way to sleep.

She sighs, canceling her intent to leave.

**

"Can you tell me how we gonna hide it from Chaeyoung? You both are literally like my relationship with my bad luck, never leaving me." Jennie says in an absurd tone.

\- "Oh..," Lisa lets out touched by Jennie's sarcastic words. "Then I must be representing you!" She adds cheerfully, and winks at her.

"You represent my bad luck here." Jennie deadpans.

\- "Really? Then It must be not bad at all." Lisa says confidently ignoring her remark, and winks again.

"Just kill me already." 

-"No seriously though, I can easily distract Chaeyoung and do the plan." Lisa exclaims wearing serious expression. "She is either eating, watching TV, eating, sleeping or eating."

**

Lisa looks at Chaeyoung who is now sleeping peacefully. 

"Well..it might be a little difficult." She mumbles to herself looking at Chaeyoung affectionately.

Min Yoo enters the living room and sees them like that, surprising Lisa. Bashfully, she turns to him and gives him a dead closed smile with her eyes nearly closed, then quickly turns her attention to the TV before her.

Min Yoo sighs and keeps walking, on his way to check the mail when he sees one of the maids walking in front of him. He goes in the same direction and stops her and asks whether she took the mail or not and she tells him that she was on her way to do so.

"I'll go check it. You can get back to work." He tells her in an authoritative tone.

The maid bows to him and leaves, to then he heads to the mailbox and takes out the mails from inside the box. He starts changing the envelopes until he reaches the one he's looking for and pauses, staring at it and reading its cover. 

**

/"Oh yes sir, I'm with you." Min Yoo says as he enters the office back, closing the door behind him.

"Min Yoo, Is there anyone next to you?" Sehun asks.

"No one. I'm alone in the office." He replies walking and standing next to the desk.

"Okay, Listen to what I'm going to tell you well."

"All ears, sir."

"You know about the Inkigao party, it's next month."

"Yes, I know." He takes a seat, getting more curious.

"Kim Eun Ji is trying to get Jisoo to participate in it, she will corner her by saying that this's important to the family's reputation and you know Jisoo.. she won't refuse her request if she comes to her like this. What I want from you is the next; Prevent any invitation to participate in the ceremony from falling into the hand of Jisoo. The invitation may arrive tomorrow or after tomorrow. Make sure this doesn't happen!"

Min Yoo stays silent for a moment, taking all the information in to then he replies:  
"As you wish. but..mmm... isn't it better if she took part in it? I mean, she loves to dance-"

"It's not about dancing, Min Yoo! I'm sure Eun Ji is planning something else behind that party!" 

"I see. You can rest assure, sir. Nothing will reach Jisoo's hand." \

**

He takes the invitation, hides it inside the pocket of his Formal jacket, and returns the rest of the envelopes.

. . . . . . . . . 

After midday and afternoon, Jennie comes out of the wing on the way to the first floor, wanting to see what Lisa did so far since she didn't come down during lunch either.

Being the anxious type, she gets afraid and worried over the simplest things. And when something really bad happens, she can't rest comfortably and all her thinking and concern becomes revolving about that thing, which causes her stomach to flip constantly and loses appetite.

When she gets to the second floor she hears a faint sound coming from the corridor facing the office side, it looks like some music is playing. Curious to know where it comes from, she starts walking in the direction of the sound. She couldn't see the entire mansion yet, so she also finds it an opportunity to explore. 

She keeps walking until she finds a door to her right and opens it. It is the inner pool of the mansion. Regardless of its beauty and wide space, there is no music source inside it.

She walks away from it and completes her path in the corridor. There is now a double door in front of her, but it's not the type that has a cylindrical lever lock on it, but rather the moving freely, lightweight type that you can open, whether you push it or pull it towards you. The door contains two narrow vertical rectangular mirrors, the foggy type mirrored glass, which makes the view unclear through it except for some areas that are in the form of a small horizontal rectangle distributed along the mirrors.

Jennie walks closer to the door, and the closer she gets, the more clear and audible the music becomes. Until she reaches the door and looks from the see-through areas, It's just a wide empty room with a large plane mirror and a soft wooden floor. It looks like a dance studio, but no one is inside.

Jennie decides to move away, until someone enters her field of vision. 

It's Jisoo.

She's wearing a tight black crop top, leaving her her taut stomach and tense muscles showing, and a tight black shorts that reaches her knees. Her hair is tied in a messy bun with small baby hairs falling on both sides of her face and on her neck.

What caught Jennie's attention even more and made her forget the idea of moving away from here, is that Jisoo, whom she has always seen somewhat assertive, one of the women who devoted their lives only to work and work only.

In front of her..

Dancing.

Jisoo was doing a modern dance on classic epic music; her movements are harmonious and smooth, the way her body sways with rhythm, the way her facial expressions trying to convey a story to others through her dance were just..breathtaking.

All of this made Jennie unable to lift her gaze off her. Had it not been something involuntary, she would have kept her eyes open so she wouldn't blink and miss a single moment of what she is seeing. 

Her body is now attached to the door and all her focus is on Jisoo.

Jisoo pauses and runs her left hand to her neck, rotating it a little and massages it. She stops massaging and turns around and goes to the opposite side. 

she is about to get out of her view again.

Her eyes, which follow Jisoo with so much interest, don't want to be lifted from her just yet, trying to know where Jisoo is going. Without being aware of herself, she finds her body leaning forward with the movement of her head that follows Jisoo, causing her to lose her balance and pushs the door open, falling right into the hall. Catching the floor with her hands and her lower left side becomes at contact with the floor.

It's clear that the sound of the sudden opening of the door and the fall has reached Jisoo's ears, of course she is now in a state of shock from the emergence of Jennie like this, and of course Jennie is now cursing herself from the amount of embarrassment that she's feeling, hoping that the earth will split and swallow her.

Indeed, Jisoo, who was on her way to turn off the music player, was shocked by the sudden entry of this parasite.

It's Jennie, sitting on her left side with her hands clinging to the floor, her hair covering her face. 

Jisoo took a moment to realize what had happened, to then a playful smile forms at the corner of her mouth. 

She must have been watching her..dancing. 

Out of embarrassment, Jennie didn't try to stand, not even move one inch. Literally frozen.

Jisoo turnes off the music and goes towards Jennie and extends her hand to her drawing her attention.

She holds Jisoo's hand without raising her head and Jisoo helps her get up and stand in front of her. Jennie doesn't lift her eyes from the floor while Jisoo is trying to hide her smile. She can tell from Jennie's tightly closed lips and her lifeless expression that she's so embarrassed.

"Are you ok?" Jisoo asks her faking ignorance, still holding her hand.

Jennie nods.

"Something wrong?" 

Jennie shakes her head, no.

Jisoo turns away from her while smiling and heads towards the music player. As soon as she reaches it she wears a playful expression when an idea comes to her mind. 

She turns around and sees Jennie busy tidying her clothes; black pants with white vertical side stripes and a white zipper jacket with black vertical stripes on the arms and under the jacket, a black armless T-shirt.

"Actually.." Jisoo exclaims suddenly making Jennie look up to her. "It's good that you are here. I might need your help with something."

Jennie looks at her with a questioning eyes while she is still standing in her place.

"What? You won't help me?" She says, tilting her head slightly to the left, wearing innocent expression.

Jennie - who is in an unenviable position - is not in any position to reject and knows that Jisoo knows this, and she knows that Jisoo is trying to use this harmless unintentional accident to her advantage. She doesn't know what her intentions really are but she's definitely planning for something.

Jennie gives her a cold smile, expressing her approval.

"Good."

Jisoo turns the music player back on and changes it to more vibrant lively music. To then she approaches Jennie as she looks directly at into eyes, with a sharp mischievous gaze and hidden smile, getting close to Jennie and acrossing her personal space.

She raises her hand and holds the top of the zipper on a Jennie's jacket.

"This will hinder your movement." She says with a low voice, and starts to unzip at a steady speed.

While Jisoo's attention was on the zipper, Jennie was looking at her.

This distance of closeness is new to Jennie, which makes her feel a little strange and a slight increase in body temperature, and perhaps..her heartbeat may have started to accelerate as well. Jennie also noticed that Jisoo is a little bit taller than her.

After she finishes, she trys to take off the jacket when Jennie stops her and takes it off herself and throws it aside. Jisoo throw her a look with one eyebrow raised and walks away from her, to get her phone.

"Ok..we can start now." She takes her phone and raises it, directing his screen in front of Jennie. 

"We will do some yoga!" She says cheerfully while Jennie just keeps staring at the phone blankly.

Jisoo displays several yoga poses to Jennie and then applies them on top of the sport mat, with the help of Jennie. The positions ranged from simple, easy to medium difficulty and requires a partner. When they finish, Jisoo gets up, stretches her body a little and turns to Jennie.

"Now..Sit down." She says nonchalantly as she looks at Jennie and gestures with her head toward the sport mat.

\- "Hmm?" Jennie lets out a humming sound spontaneously, dumbfounded.

"Come on, sit down."

Jennie hesitates a little, but she has no choice but to do as she says.

'I have a bad feeling about this.'

Jennie sits on the rug with her legs forming an inverted V.

"No..not like this! Sit this way." Jisoo objects quickly and brings her phone to face Jennie.

Jisoo can tell from Jennie's pale features that this will be very entertaining to her. She holds herself not to laugh as she watches Jennie's reaction looking at the photo.

She looks terrorized.

'She's kidding me, right? Are these positions for humans in the first place?'

"What are you waiting for? Come on, I'll help you."

Jennie tries to apply the pose and once she wraps her leg around the other with difficulty, she hears a crackling sound out from her hip bone.

As she struggles to do the pose, Jisoo stands watching her, trying to keep a straight face.

Somehow Jennie succeeds and does her legs as shown in the picture, it took from her all her energy and even her face became red. Thinking that she has finished it, Jennie overlooks that the pose has not ended yet and it's now the arms turn.

She remembers this when Jisoo gets closer to her from behind and holds her arms with her head hovering over the top of Jennie's left shoulder. Surprised at the touch, Jennie turns her head to meet Jisoo's eyes and finds her wearing an amused expression.

Jennie stares at her with facial expressions that say 'please..no.'

And Jisoo just gives her an evil smile and takes Jennie's right arm and raises it up and bends it at the elbow to the back as well as for the left arm but from below. Once Jisoo pulls Jennie's arms towards each other, they both hear the shoulder bones cracking, accompanied by a fleeing cry from Jennie's mouth.

Well..Now she has begun to understand, she swears that Jisoo is trying to get back at her for what she did that day in the garden.

After they finish this position, Jisoo deliberately chooses more difficult positions that requires high flexibility, each position was accompanied by the sounds of cracking from Jennie's bones and sometimes some faint screams. Jennie herself is trying her best not to explode and shout 'Enough!'.

'She's crazy! Totally crazy!'

The yoga poses weren't impossible to apply, but some of them need flexibility and strength, and Jennie is not the type that loves sports. Just walking for some meters makes her get tired and to stop to rest, so she always used to get acceptable grades in sport in high school. Aside from flexibility, she doesn't even have the strength. That's why Today's yoga is no less than a torture for her.

The yoga session ends with Jennie lying on the floor trying to catch her breath. Her hair became wet due to excessive sweating and her muscles hurt. Jisoo, who was standing looking at her, bends forward, lowering her upper half, resting one of her arms on her knee and the other arm extended to Jennie.

"We're even now!" She says with a broad smile.

Before she takes her hand, Jennie stares at her a little, in disbelief.

'This bitch! I knew it!'

After helping her get up, she tells her that they have finished here and she can go and thanks her for the help although Jennie could sense her sinister smile behind that 'thank you.'

Jisoo picks up Jennie's jacket from the ground, walks back towards her and puts it gently around her shoulders.

"You're weak because you're not eating well." She says as she looks directly into Jennie's eyes, unpleased.

Jennie pauses when she hears that while she is in the middle of wearing her jacket.

'She has noticed.'

Jisoo is starting to get used to this silence between them, or rather the one-sided communication. Although she can't talk to Jennie and most of the time she seems to be talking to herself, but somehow she can hear and understand Jennie's eyes talk, there is something special about them. 

They're very... expressive.

Jennie bows and turns towards the door, on her way out, walking in a funny way. As soon as she goes out, Jisoo chuckles at her walking like that.

. . . . . . . ..

Jennie enters the wing, closes the door and lays her back against it with her hands crossed behind her back.

Even? Is that how even means to her? 

'Damn, I want to lie down as soon as possible!'

She looks around, understanding the situation she's in, which she has completely forgotten. And this makes her realize that throughout the whole time she was with Jisoo previously, she had never thought of anything that worried her before; she didn't think about Matthew, nor how to steal the safe, nor how to escape, absolutely nothing. In fact, she can feel herself being hungry. At the same time, that made her return to reality, which made her appetite disappear again.

She goes to her room and enters and finds Lisa sitting on the bed waiting for her.

"Where were you?" Lisa asks as soon as she enters.

\- "Aah.. mm..I was checking something." Jennie answers sheepishly, trying to sound subtle. "Anyway, did you check around the first floor?"

"Aah..yes.." She says stretching the last word and looking somewhere else.

She was sleeping.

"So, did you know where the safe is?" She digresses.

\- "Yes, now we have to find the password." Jennie says, sighing, and goes to sit beside Lisa.

"And what about the escape plan?"

\- "I am still thinking about it. In any case, we won't do a thing until we find a way."

———————————-  
To be continued.  
———————————


	10. It All Ends Here

Chapter 9

In one of the nightclubs on Jeju Island. The place where all the boys and girls gather in search of pleasure and a good time. Amid the wines and drugs and under the influence of high music, they dance with each other without awareness of what surrounds them or even with who they dance.

Matthew enters the club and stands looking around the club, looking for someone. After he finds him, he heads to the center of the club as he tries to cross from among the people that are busy dancing until he reaches the bar and takes a seat next to another man who is a small distance away from him.

After asking for a beer, he reaches out to the pocket of his jacket and pulls out an envelope, placing it on the table without looking at hia side or raising his eyes from the drink that was placed in front of him. He slides the envelope to the man on his right.

"This contains all the details you need about the person."

The unknown man takes the envelope and Matthew takes out another envelope and places it in front of the man.

"This is half of the payment in advance. The rest of the payment will be sent once the work is done." Matthew says in a firm tone, drinking from his glass.

The man takes the other envelope.

"When will you start?" Matthew asks, pretending to be looking somewhere else.

"You will know when you know." The unknown man answers simply.

"Make it soon."

Matthew says then he takes a sip and gets up from his seat, heading out from the club.

. . . . . . . . . .

Jisoo goes down to the dining hall as it's time for dinner and finds the plates are already put on the table, and Lisa and Chaeyoung have both taken their seat at the table. Of course, Jennie isn't here again.

"She's not coming again?" Jisoo asks, a little bit annoyed.

Lisa shakes her head, no.

Jisoo stares at them sharply, her lips closed tightly and her gaze intimidating. She seems to be angry although it's not really the case, but that is how she looks when she becomes serious. 

"Ma'am, sit down and I'll go-" Min Yoo declares when he sees her expression and before he completes, Jisoo ignores him, turns around and rushes up towards the top floor.

To Jennie.

. . . . . . . .

Jisoo arrives to Jennie's room. She was about to open the room directly when she stops herself with her hand near the door handle. She takes a breath to calm down as she was walking fast and knocks on the door. 

Jennie was lying down on the bed, still feeling fatigued from what happened in the dance hall. With difficulty, she gets up when she hears the sudden knocking, wondering who this might be.

"I'm Jisoo.. could you please open the door?"  
Jisoo says in clear determinded tone.

Confused about the reason why she's here, Jennie opens the door and sees Jisoo standing with one hand against the wall on her left. 

Jisoo keeps wearing the same serious expression when she lifts her hand off the wall and passes by Jennie's side inside the room and stops when she becomes at the middle of the room.

"So.. you didn't have breakfast or lunch, and even though I previously told you that this was the reason for your physical weakness, you still don't want to come to dinner?" Jisoo says as she turns around facing Jennie.

"What is happening with you?" She adds with her eyebrows furrowed.

Jennie moves away from the door and leaves it open, walks closer to Jisoo and stands in front of her at a distance. She stares back at Jisoo for a moment to then she turns her gaze to the other side, not knowing what to answer and how. She looks back at her, silence is her only answer. And it's not like Jisoo is waiting for a verbal answer from her.

They keep staring at each for another few moments until Jisoo decides to cut to the chase.

"I don't know what disturbs you like this, nor do I know what happened for you to stop eating suddenly," she states firmly and with every word she approaches a step closer to Jennie making sure not to lower her eyes from Jennie's eyes and to keep a safe distance between them. Trying to figure out her problem. 

"nor what happened before you came here and honestly..I don't care." She tells her the last sentence with a dry tone. To then she follows:  
"But whatever that is, it doesn't mean that you neglect your health like this. Since you have become living in my property, this means that you have become my responsibility and I cannot ignore your bad behavior toward your self." She finishes looking sharply and deeply into Jennie's eyes. 

"Now let's go."

Jisoo adds suddenly and holds Jennie's arm, dragging her, causing Jennie to turn around. But Jennie, whose the sentence 'I don't care' disturbed her and got on her nerves, refuses to move and freezes in her place, causing Jisoo to stop. 

When she sees her like this, she turns her head towards her.

"What? Let's go."

Jennie releases her arm free from Jisoo's grip and crosses her arms together, looking displeased.

"I said. Let's. go." Jisoo says each word slowly and separately.

Jennie shakes her head, no, letting the silence reigns between them again, staring at each other. It's a battle over who is the most stubborn one.

Jennie is more than pissed with her attitude, why is she behaving like this? So carefree.

Always wearing the same damn expressions, calm and smiley.

Why is she always behaving like the world is all pink and rainbows? And like everything is fine? Spending her life in so much welfare that missing one of the meals become her biggest concern.

Sorry, but some people out there might be killed at any moment! And they have no time to think about food.

Does she think if she smiled, everything will be better? Does she think that all people live in rich and happiness like her? 

She irritates her to no end!

It's when they see you sad and say 'it's okay', you are expected to become better after that. As if all what you needed is that word, as if you needed them to say it to you. They don't understand and that's what bothers you, and their attempt to understand your situation is bothering you even more. 

Jennie was overwhelmed by these feelings, which made her forget an important fact; that feeling like this doesn't necessarily mean that what you feel is true.

And yes, Jisoo doesn't understand. she doesn't understand her.

Isn't she supposed to be more...obedient?

Jisoo doesn't want to seem like an arrogant person, but.. why is she behaving like she owns the place? Like she's doing her a favor by staying in her mansion.

Like..she can literally throw her out if she wants to! 

'God..the audacity.'

Why is she trying to look so strong and unbreakable? Always so defensive, as if she would hurt her any moment. 

She hates her hotheadedness!

But no..she can't let her get on her nerves.

She is not unaware of the fact that some people sometimes need to stay alone, but when it comes to harming their health, certainly these people are not in their full right mind and leaving them to their liking is not the solution.

"Why so stubborn?"

Jennie's reluctant expression disappears when Jisoo asks her suddenly, looking at her with great confusion. She can see how truly confused Jisoo is just from her expressions.

She decides to clearly tell her that all the matter is just her not feeling the desire to eat anything, so she relaxes her arms, points to her stomach, and then shakes her head negatively, with her eyebrows curled and face wrinkled.

Jisoo understood what Jennie wants to convey to her, but she was determined from the moment she went up to her that she would never go down unless she is with her.

"Well then.. I won't have dinner either." 

Jisoo says shrugging and then goes to sit on the edge of the bed, resting her elbow on her knee with her cheek against the palm of her hand as she looks forward, carelessly.

"And I will stay here too." Jisoo adds nonchalantly.

Jennie looks at her with wide eyes and raised eyebrows, surprised by what Jisoo just said.

"What? You think I'm joking? Just watch me."   
She confirms with a playful tone.

'Stay here?' 

She cannot allow this! She can't stay here, and she's crazy. she does it!

Jisoo looks up to Jennie and then brings her gaze back to the void. looks at her again, but this time she looks at her wondering. There is something different in Jennie's outlook but she doesn't know what it is.

Her face is the same..

Her clothes are the same..

Her hair-

'Yes, her hair.'

It wasn't held up like this before, it wasn't tied up in a ponytail.

Jisoo gets up and turns towards Jennie, and this time her expression is more serious, as if the thing she's about to do is more important than Jennie's health. She extends her hand behind Jennie's head and pulls her hair tie in a smoothly making her hair fall over her shoulders, then runs her hands gently through Jennie's hair to tidy it up and restyle it.

"Yes..this's better." 

She says, looking at Jennie generally and goes back and sits on the same position previously, looking satisfied.

Jennie really became speechless at that, her mind went blank and her heart is beating fast.

She really doesn't understand her, and she no longer understands herself either.

. . . . . . . . . 

Everyone at the dining hall was in complete silence, waiting for Jisoo to come. They didn't pour the main dishes yet and Lisa was trying hard to tie Chaeyoung's hands so that she won't attack the side dishes.

Finally, They hear the sound of footsteps approaching them. It's Jisoo, coming with a bright smile on her face or rather a smile of victory, and behind her there's Jennie walking sheepishly, looking exactly like someone who had been defeated.

Jisoo sits at the head of the table, and Jennie sits on her left next to the girls. Jisoo tells Min Yoo to start pouring food and start their dinner.

During dinner, Jisoo kept slicing the meat for Jennie and putting it on her plate first, then slicing it to herself, making sure that the rest of the dishes are in her reach and constantly looking at her with a warm smile. Practically, treating her like a child who had just thrown a tantrum.

Lisa and Chaeyoung were in their own world talking with their eyes and facial expressions about how the food is delicious and tasty with long groans, Lisa was arguing with Chaeyoung that one of dishes is more delicious than the other and Chaeyoung was disagreeing with her and this was all a hot debate between their facial expressions and signs.

Jisoo who was watching the whole thing, laughs with an open silent laugh as she changes her attention towards her plate.

And Jennie, after implanting her fork inside a small piece of meat and is about to eat it, takes notice of Jisoo's laugh and she stills for a moment.

This is the first time she sees her laugh like this.

And it's beautiful.

It was so beautiful that it took all Jennie's attention with her eyes focusing on Jisoo and instead of putting the bite in her mouth, she directs it towards the corner of her mouth causing it to fall in her lap while her mouth is still slightly open, waiting for the bite. 

Jennie freezes a little and closes her eyes while cursing herself inside and then she completes her dinner, pretending that nothing has happened.

Jisoo noticed the bite falling, but ignored it as if she had not seen anything. She doesn't want Jennie to feel anymore embarrassed.

As for Jennie, she was fed up. Her soul had already went up to heaven multiple times from the repeated embarrassment. Very angry with herself, she doesn't know what's going on with her. She is angry at herself but more at Jisoo because she was the reason every time.

She makes her do stupid things. She really can't stand her!

Her continuous kindness with her makes her feel guilty, makes her..hesitate. This is something she can't deal with, not anymore and so, she closes her heart. Each time she finds herself on the gates of weakness, she closes her heart tightly again, leaving her mind and her priority to survive in control.

She finishes her food quickly and gets up, turns toward Jisoo and bows to her indicating that she will leave now.

Before Jisoo could abject, her phone rings. She lifts it and sees it is from her father to then she picks up the call, looking at Jennie. Seeing that, Jennie walks off the table and goes to the top floor.

"Yes, Dad.. just a moment, until I get to the office."

. . . . . . . . .

/"How are you dear? How are things there?"

"Everything is all right. You?" Jisoo answer as she sits in her chair behind her desk.

"Good, they're waiting for you to return and make them better." With a gentle tone, he says, making Jisoo smile weakly. 

"I can manage things from here, dad.." she comments playfully.

"Oh right, did the JYP representative call you about our coming project in Seoul?"

"Yes, he called me yesterday and we spoke a little." She says swinging in her chair, looking up to the ceiling.

"I contacted him before I called you, he will come to Jeju Island tomorrow to discuss the project and sign the contract." He states.

"Oh..good, then..I will decide with him later on a date, you can take charge of the rest after I send you the files."

"Ok," he pauses a little then he departs, hesitant. "Everything is going fine, right?"

"Yes, I already told you.." Jisoo answers, a little bit surprised by his question for the second time.

"Did you get something?"

"Something like what?"

A moments of silence pass and then:  
"Oh, never mind, it's nothing. Well then, I'm going to close now. Good night."

"Good night." \ she says in a low tone then hangs up.

. . . . . . . .

After Jisoo had called him, Min Yoo heads towards the office, Lisa and Chaeyoung were in their way to their rooms behind him.

When He enters the office, Lisa stops and tells Chaeyoung that she will go and bring some snacks from the kitchen to eat in the room. Easily convinced, Chaeyoung nods and continues her path. Lisa waits for Chaeyoung to go upstairs then looks around to make sure sure that no one is around her. She walks closer to the office door and puts her ear against it carefully. She hears Jisoo and Min Yoo talking, their voices are low but clear.

"Did you agree with him on tomorrow?" Min Yoo asks.

\- "Yes, at eight o'clock in the evening, and you're coming with me too." Jisoo informs him firmly.

"As you say. Is there a need to bring out the project xxx' files?"

\- "No, our meeting is for another project, what I want from you is to prepare the projector, we will need it and also withdraw the presentations on the flash memory."

"Okay."

\- "This is it, you can go."

Once Lisa hears that, she quickly moves away from the door and heads down.

. . . . . . .

"Is there anything else you want before I go?" Min Yoo says standing in front of her desk.

-" No, there is not. "

She says while she is standing behind her desk, arranging the papers. As he turns around and heads to the door, she suddenly stops and calls him who before he exits.

He turns back, looking at her questionably.

"Actually, yes. There is something I want you to bring to me." She says looking amused.

. . . . . . . .

Lisa enters the room with a bag of chips and some nuts, and finds Chaeyoung lying in bed.

"You are late!" Chaeyoung grumbles as she snatches the bag of chips from Lisa's hand and looks at her angrily.

\- "Calm down, Jeez! I'm late because I didn't know what to bring." Lisa defends, in disbelief to then she sits on the mattress. She waits for a few minutes, and then she takes a bag of nuts and gets up.

"I'm going to Jennie to give her this," Lisa says, trying to be subtle."she was recently frustrated and maybe this will cheer her up a little..you know.."

Chaeyoung nods to her without even looking and Lisa heads out of the room, hastily.

. . . . . . .

"Are you sure?" Jennie asks, squinting her eyes, with her arms crossed.

\- "Yes! I told you, I heard them with my own ears." Lisa says in matter of fact.

"Good, this is a great opportunity to try to figure out the password.." Jennie says as her eyes wanders in the empty space, thinking.

\- "Do whatever you gotta do, planning or thinking." Lisa adds as she gets up from the bed in a hurried tone. "I have to go before Chaeyoung starts asking. Tell me tomorrow."

" Okay "

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Before midnight around eleven o'clock, Jennie in her room sitting in the middle of her bed with her legs crossed, thinking about what Lisa had previously said.

That's when she hears knocking on the door, breaking her thoughts.

Wearing an annoyed expression, she gets up and heads towards it.

'Now what?'

She opens the door and furrows when she doesn't see anyone there, pops her head a little outside the room, looking around, wondering, but there is no one. When she intends to go back inside, her eyes lay on the floor and sees a bucket of medium size with a spoon over it at the doorstep.

Squatting and lifting it from the ground and getting up again looking at the bucket.

It is a family size ice cream bucket with chocolate flavor and strawberries.

She takes it with her as she closes the door, walks towards the bed, wondering for a moment who put it there when she remembers that there is only one person who can do this.

"Jisoo.."

She glares at the bucket and then goes and puts it on the makeup table, leaves it there and goes back and sits on the side of the bed, crossing her arms as she keeps staring at the bucket and pouting.

"What was she thinking for god's sake? Does she think I'm a child or something? I certainly won't eat it!"

. . . . . . . .

Amid the silence that fills the place, the door of Jisoo's room opens slowly. Jisoo pops her head slantly glancing from behind the door, only her eyes showing, looking at Jennie's room. When she sees that the bucket has disappeared from the doorstep, she smiles and re-closes the door.

**

"An Ice creem?" He says confused.

-" Yes! "

"But why now suddenly?"

\- "Min Yoo, no matter how sad and depressed one is, they can't resist a bucket of ice cream with chocolate flavor." She tells him playfully in a matter of fact as she sits back in her chair.

**

. . . . . . . .

"Does she think that the ice cream will solve everything? For real! I don't understand her!"

Jennie mumbles as she digs the spoon again deep into the ice cream and puts it in her mouth, sitting with her legs crossed in the middle of the bed.

"Ugh! it's so delicious!"

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

The next day passes normally and calmly; Jennie was with them at breakfast this time and at lunch too, as she can't stand Jisoo watching her all the time, Jisoo spent her time working at the office and Lisa and Chaeyoung, either wandering around the garden or watching TV.

Around eight o'clock, Jisoo had finished preparing herself and is now in her room extracting the important files she will need in the meeting.

It's common for Jisoo to organize the files in two separate bags, to reach them easily when needed.

After finishing organizing the files, she puts them in the designated bag, closes it, and puts it next to the makeup table. She looks at the mirror for the last touches when her phone rings and lifts her it to see who's calling. 

It's her partner in the project, and it's seems he's calling to ask about the meeting. After completing her conversation with him, she takes the bag and heads out of the room and closes it behind her.

When she comes out of the wing, she finds Min Yoo waiting for her.

"So ma'am, shall we go?"

-"Yes"

Jisoo and Min Yoo get out on their way to the car that is waiting for them in the front yard.

A few moments after they got off the third floor, Jennie comes out of the wing and looks around. Making sure no one is around, she goes to the window at the end of the corridor, which overlooks the front yard, and sees a black car parked outside.

. . . . . . . . 

Once Jisoo and Min Yoo reach the front yard and get into the car, the car starts to move and goes on its way out of the mansion door.

Jennie was watching them from above, as soon as she saw the car had moved and is about to leave the gate, she moves away from the window and runs hurriedly inside the wing and closes the door behind her, unaware that it didn't close completely.

She knockes on the door of Lisa's room two consecutive knocks as a sign they agreed on. She waits a for a few seconds walking forward and backward until She feels the door is opening.

Lisa gets out of the room, walking slowly so she doesn't wake Chaeyoung up.

They head to the chest of the wing and sit on the sofa, facing each other.

"Okay. They left, We don't know how long they will stay outside, so we have to move quickly!" Jennie starts in determined tone, clasping her hands together.

\- "Well then, let's repeat the plan quickly." Lisa says nervously matching Jennie's tone.

"As far as we know; the password either it was sent to them by mail aor by a phone call, so it must be that Min Yoo wrote it down. Of course there is a possibility that he didn't and it had been printed in his memory but I excluded that because he's an old dementia, he cannot remember the password from merely hearing it."

\- "You really don't like him, don't you?"

"In any case.." Jennie digresses, ignoring her remark.

"What we will do is the following; we will search the office and search for any paper, envelope or notebook that might have been written on it. If we find nothing we will move to Min Yoo's room on the first floor."

\- "Okay, but do you know where his room is?" Lisa says, getting more worried and suspicious by the second.

"No, that's why we have to move quickly. Now let's go!"

Jennie gets up quickly and intends to walk when Lisa gets up and grabs her arm and stops her.

"Jennie wait a second! we have to talk about something.." Lisa says wearing a serious expression.

-" What is it?"

"Don't you think that there is something strange about all this?" 

\- "Something strange? how?" Jennei asks furrowing.

"I mean, don't you find that our plan is working well and without hindrance, is something strange?" Lisa says in worried tone.

\- "Why not? Doesn't this mean that it is a good thing? Maybe God wants to help us." Jennie says releasing her arm free.

"What I mean is..You entered Jisoo's room, the owner of this mansion, and you got out and nothing happened, as simple as that! Not to mention, there are no cameras in the mansion, I mean, mansion of this size and someone of such importance, has such weak protection?" She tells her in a suspicious tone.

Jennie stays silent for a moment as her face turns to the other side. She knows that it's strange, but she is desperate and doesn't know any other solution. Her feeling of fear around the clock is very exhausting, and all she thinks of is to save herself and to escape far away..very far, so she cannot back down now. She can't Lisa's words get into her mind.

She looks back at Lisa and she's more determined now.

"Lisa, although it is a big mansion but it's more like a regular home. I mean Jisoo doesn't have those jobs that require maximum protection. It's just big in size, it's not a hotel or resort for them to put cameras everywhere! Now let's move!" 

Jennie starts walking but stops when she notices that Lisa is still standing, hesitant. 

"Lisa, I thought you were serious about this..It seems I was wrong." Jennie tells her in a scolding tone, disappointed and scared that she changed her mind.

\- "I am really serious, but I can't take this discomfort out of me." Lisa says in a stressed tone, still not convinced.

"Don't worry, nothing will happen.." Jennie assures her as she walks back to Lisa a few steps. "We'll just go and look at the papers if we don't find anything , we come back here as if nothing happened." She says, nodding slowly.

"Even if we find the password, Jisoo is too busy on her dates to even notice! And in any case, I won't stay any longer here, even if I can't steal the safe. I'm leaving from here! Now please mov-"

"Wh-what am I hearing?"

—————————-  
To be continued   
—————————


	11. See Right Through Me

Chapter 10

Jisoo gets in the car in the backseat while Min Yoo sits in the front and the car starts moving. She keeps looking into the void from the window and when they're about to pass the gate, Jisoo takes her gaze away from the window to the inside of the car. That's when she notices that there is only one bag here and realizes that she has forgotten the other one. She asks the driver to stop quickly and go back. Surprised by her request, Min Yoo turns his head towards her and asks about the matter.

"I forgot the other bag." 

\- "Oh, I'll get it."

"No, no, I'll go." She tells him simply, in case his presence would disturb the girls.

After the car returns to its place, Jisoo gets out and speeds hers way up to the top floor. Walking with hurried steps, she forgets that the bag is in the office, thinking that it's in her room too, so she skips the office and heads towards her wing.

When she reach the wing and is about to open the door, she finds it already partially open. 

Once she opens the door wider and steps inside few steps, she hears faint voices. The voices of people talking. After the door section there is a short passage separating it from the chest of the wing with a large partition, she walks through it carefully, getting closer and the sounds becoming clearer..

"Lisa..I thought you were serious about this..."

Jisoo stops in her tracks.

"It seems I was wrong!!"

Jisoo became confused..very confused..Voices never reached her ear and she didn't know who these voices belong to and what they are doing in her wing. No one here but these three girls..

"I am really serious, but I can't take the discomfort out of me."

She can feel her hands starting to tremble, and the fear starting to crawl inside her, her hidden fear from the past, as she tries to absorb what is happening..

She starts walking slowly.

"Don't worry, nothing will happen. We'll just go and look at the papers.. if we don't find anything, we come back here as if nothing happened. Even if we find the password, Jisoo is too busy on her dates to even notice!"

She stops again as soon as she hears her name and the phrase that followed it.

They know her name..they know her work.. they know her..Knowing who these voices are become eating her from the inside and at the same time her fear has increased and her facial features have become pale.

"And in any case, I won't stay any longer here, even if I can't steal the safe .. I'm leaving from here!"

She is close to the end of the partition and in every step she sees a part of these people until she comes out and sees them completely; one is standing with her back facing her and the other stands in front of her.

"Now please mov-" the first one says as she turns around.

"Wh-what am I hearing?" 

They are the two girls who she allowed to live with her temporary. They are not strangers, she knows them, but the voices she was hearing, who they were? Both of them can't talk..then to who they belong?

Silence reigns in the place, Jennie and Lisa, both are in a state of shock freezed in their place, looking at Jisoo and Jisoo looking at them.

Jisoo was looking at them with a mouth slightly open and eyes full of questions and confusion, eyes that were traveling from Lisa to Jennie repeatedly, but this silence is of no use. She must know..before losing her mind she must know.

"Voices..Whose voices they were?" Jisoo starts talking with a low hesitant voice.

No answer, just silence. She's starting to think about another possibility.

"In th-this wing, there's only you and I, even..even Min Yoo can't enter here without my permission." She says in a steady tone. "So, the voices..the voices I heard..that were speaking before..who they belong to?"

Once again..only silence..

"Answer me!" Jisoo shouts at them loudly and impatiently, making both Lisa and Jennie startle.

"Tell me now! who these voices were?" in a louder voice.

Another few moments of silence pass before they hear someone approaching them from the rooms' direction and Jennie turns her head slowly to their direction, Lisa and Jisoo does them same. It's Chaeyoung, apparently have just woken up because of the loud voice, walking slow and dragging her steps on the floor while wiping her eyes.

"Lisa?" She speaks in a sleepy tone and Lisa looks at her while shaking her head desperately, indicating that she should stop talking. 

"Is that you? Why are your voices so loud?"

She finishes, blinking few times and getting closer to them when her vision becomes clear and her eyes lay on the person on the side to see that it was no one but Jisoo, looking at her shocked. 

As soon as Chaeyoung sees her she becomes sober completely and realizes her action just before and she freezes in her place.

At that, Jennie shuts her eyes close momentarily and clenches her teeth. It is over now.. they're over. No more games and tricks now, Jisoo got her answer in the worst possible way. 

She opens her eyes and looks at Jisoo, she's staring at her.. staring into her soul. Lifeless expressions, dark eyes.. her looks sent chills through her entire body.

Jisoo's hand stopped shivering as her gaze turns to the floor, and the fear that was inside of her disappeared. It became clear to her now that she collected all the pieces in her mind to become one. Her emotions are no use now, Jisoo is no longer nice and quiet that she realizes that; They..took her for a fool.

"Let- let's talk-" 

Lisa tries to talk with her but Jisoo is quickly to cut her off, "Shut up." In a low firm voice.

"It's- it's not what-" Jennie tries too.

"Shut up." A bit louder 

"Please ..."

\- "I said. Shut the fuck up!" She shouts looking up at Jennie.

"J-Jisoo.."

\- "Don't say my name!" Shouts again suddenly making Jennie wince. "Don't you say my name!"

Jennie's lips are trembling, she doesn't know what to do and what to say. She can't think of anything now, scared..too scared..and so is Lisa.

But why? Why is she so scared? Just a minute ago she was so confident about what she was doing..she didn't even care that she might get caught or what Jisoo will do or think if she found out. So why now that she did found out, she's so scared?

Maybe from how Jisoo is looking at them right now..she never saw her like this before.

"How could you?" Jisoo starts talking in a cold tone looking at them in disbelief. "After all that I've done for you? You wanted to steal me too?" She says and laughs a slight humorless laugh and turns her eyes at them one by one.

"Was this your plan from the beginning?"

They all look at her quickly, and their eyes screaming, no.

Silence fills the place as she keeps looking at them unbelievably.

"I believed that you were so innocent that you won't even dare to lie to me.." she adds with a bitterness. "I believed you!"

"Listen to me..please-" Jennie starts again carefully.

"Min Yoo was right..I shouldn't have allowed you to stay." Jisoo says coldly, ignoring her as she looks down.

"Let me..let me explain to you..please.."

Jennie tries to talk to her but Jisoo no longer receives any of their words, She has closed her ears and anger is all that controls her now.

"My intuition for the first time, has betrayed me." She says with a low voice, disappointed, mostly in herself. "I thought we..I thought.." She trails off and looks at Jennie for a moment, when she feels her eyes are getting teary and a tear is about to fall down her cheek she turns her head away from them and wipes her eyes unnoticeably. 

🎶▶️ Epic Score - We Will Not Yield. 

"You broke into my house and this is what I never allow." She says as she slowly turns her body, giving her back to them, it looks like she's going to head out but what she's going to do?

"No..Jisoo this's not it..listen to me."  
Jennie says helplessly but Jisoo ignores her again. 

"You can complete your little game in prison." She adds and starts walking.

'No! Stop!'

why doesn't she listen to her?

Why does it have to end like this? Why every time nothing works right for her? Why doesn't she let her talk to her? Why's she leaving?

When Jennie feels that all her efforts, thoughts, plans and anxieties have gone in vain, when she sees that even in the end she didn't succeed, that until the end she will suffer, that her life has been condemned to humiliation and permanent hardships. 

When she just now realizes that the only true good thing that happened to her is in front of her walking away, that she lost everything..she loses her mind.

No, not after everything she went through. She cannot allow the matter to end like this, It cannot end like this. Prison? Is this her pay for all that she has suffered so far? To go to prison? No..it can't be..she can't. 

But even so, even in this situation, her pride doesn't allow her to beg or humiliate herself. Jennie, who has nothing left of her but her useless pride that she hates so much, still until now refuses to submit, and therefore she rises..

"So what?" Jennie shouts making Jisoo stop in her tracks.

"Yes I wanted to steal you and so what?"

Jisoo turns back around slowly hearing that, to face Jennie.

She can see Jennie's veins as if they were about to pop out from her neck and face, with her hands clinging tightly to her pants. 

"And so what if we stole it? Not as if this will affect you!" Jennie was speaking with loud and deep voice from the bottom of her throat, causing her voice to crack at the end of every sentence she says. 

"For heaven's sake, look at the mansion you live in! Would it harm you if a little money disappeared?" She says with a hint of irony in her tone. "Yes! We lied to you.. But do you have the right to blame us? Did you even bother to know why? of course not!

We have done what our instincts told us! We have done what we need to survive! A spoiled girl like you will never understand!"

"Jennie! Stop it!" Lisa says to her but Jennie ignores her and continues with a stressed determined voice, "You were born with a spoonful of gold in your mouth! What do you know about the likes of us? What do you know about suffering? Your food is ready! Your house is ready! Your clothes are ready! You didn't have to make an effort to get them..You found everything ready for you!

In what right are you holding us accountable now? You have no right to be angry with us!  
People like you who pushed us to be like this! And now you're punishing us for lying to you? Of course we will lie to you! Look how ignorant you are!"

Staring blankly at her and listening to her words, an old memory invades Jisoo's mind, something that her mother had told her in the past..

**  
"Mom! When can we see people for who they really are?"

Her mother smiles at her strange, deep question, given her young age and answers:  
"When they have nothing left to lose."

**

"Innocent?" She pauses a little in disbelief."The world I came from doesn't leave..anything innocent within you." She says with a steady shivering voice as she feels her tears are about to gather up in her eyes. 

"You think you know how a miserable life looks like? Just because you are an illegitimate daughter? Does that fact sadden you?"

'No ..Jennie..stop!'

"Are you sad that your father sent you here?  
Would you have liked it if he sent you to a better place and a bigger mansion?"

'Stop it! Before you cross the line.'

"Do you think you have suffered enough to make judgments about others?"

'Stop..'

"Acting all hight and mighty..Do you think you can deceive those around you with your fake smile?" 

'No! You know this's not true..'

"Do you think that will make you a better person?"

'It's not her fault..stop it!'

"Does this justify you to look down at us like this?"

Jennie continues to throw hurtful words and Jisoo continues to stare at her, her eyes are getting darker and colder. Jennie can see that and so she turns her eyes to the floor as she lowers her head. She can't stop herself now, She has already pulled the trigger, the bullet has already been fired. 

"You want to send us to prison? Come on, go ahead..do it.. Do it now !   
Not like you will make a big difference, we're already in prison! Our entire life was a prison! It was a prison and it will remain a prison!

What did you think? What makes you think anything in the first place? And what did you expect? We will stay here with you and live forever happily? We and you are from different worlds..Our end was clear from the start! There's nothing that makes you think otherwise!" Clenching hard on her clothes, feeling her pain starting to flow slowly, maybe if she throw it all on her it will go away.

"Your family that you don't like.. your family that makes you sad.. at least you have a family!"

Jennie's hot tears grow and starts to fill her eyes, making her vision blurry towards the ground as they keep falling heavily.

"At least your father loves you enough to call you and asks about you..make sure you're okay! My father even forgot my existence!

If someone tries to harasse me, he wouldn't lift a finger! I had to save myself by myself! And in the end he left me and fled! This is the kind of father I have!

Did you have to work in a shitty place? Just so you can save your day? Did you have to work in a nightclub where men are waiting for the opportunity to prey on your body?"

Once again, Jisoo's intuition tells her that something is about to crash, is about to be broken. She can feel it getting closer and closer to the bottom..

It's her.

"Have you ever experienced a feeling of terror and fear? Were there people chasing you everywhere demanding money that you didn't even steal?

You don't know anything! Absolutely nothing!

Oh..right..you don't car-"

🎶⏸

The chaos that was possessing her..the feeling of the end that overwhelmed her heart.. her heavy soul and her burning eyes..

The pain that drove her to take out everything that was buried deep inside her; hatred, envy and jealousy..all these were eating her from the inside.

She was comforting herself that she was better than that..that she's stronger..that she is able to resist them whatever happens.

She thought she could.

Now that the pretending and strength have become meaningless, now that it has become clear to her that the reality is stronger and that all the walls she built for herself to protect her were an illusion, as if she pressed the red button that keeps all this intact, the button of self-destruction, she lets go of herself.

Her words that came out like a sharp blade cuts mercilessly and passes, hot tears accompany these words.. as if she was praying for someone to save her. She was breaking down, standing on the cliff of an abyss, might as well let them fall with her..

All those heavy feelings disappear and fade away the moment she feels an arm pulls her forward so that the other arm surrounds her, making her cut her words.

🎶▶️ [MV] 안 지연 (Ahn Ji Yeon) - Lost (The Smile Has Left Your Eyes OST) 

Moments and she realizes that they are Jisoo's arms, she can tell from her scent. 

Jisoo's arms embrace her strongly and tightly, shielding her from the world; a hand on her head pulling her towards her chest and a hand on her back, as if She's trying with everything she has to protect Jennie.

As if she has realized that if she doesn't do this now, Jennie would lose herself forever, she would be endlessly broken. 

Jennie tries to push Jisoo away from her, but Jisoo clings more to her and tightens her embrace even more strongly.

"Easy.." 

Jennie stills when she hears a voice she now has realized that she loved hearing it unconsciously.

"Easy on yourself.." Jisoo says gently, almost like a whisper.

'Ah..she's so warm.'

"It's all right now.. those days are over.."

'Her voice.'

"I'm sorry..I didn't know.."

'No! Don't! After everything I said to you?'

"I can't imagine how painful it was for you. I'm sorry.."

'Stop, stop.. I'm the one who should apologize!'

"I know these words came late, but those days are over.."

'Why are you like this to me? I don't deserve it!'

"You are safe now, no one can hurt you anymore.."

Jisoo says, in a soft and calm tone, as if she's singing a lullaby, like a sip of cold water at the end of a stressful day, pulling Jennie closer and caressing her back repeatedly. 

"It's okay not to be okay," she pauses for a moment and then she adds softly, "you did well..You did well, you can rest now.."

Jennie's tears that were previously out of pain and heartburn, now they're pouring down because for the first time in her life she heard the words that she always wanted to hear. Throughout these years she wished, even if only one person..anyone..to tell her that, until she grew older and gave up this wish.

She realized that what made her sad when she saw a parent buying a doll for his child was not the lack of money nor because she wanted to buy that doll. She didn't want the doll, she wanted the person who gives her the doll. Someone take cares of her with the same love and affection.

She was alone.

Jennie starts crying like a newborn baby, the sound of her crying fills the entire place.. she cries as if she knew the meaning of crying for the first time.

She hugs Jisoo back, with her fingers clinging to Jisoo's shoulders desperately. Her tears on Jisoo's chest pouring down non-stop wetting that spot. The strength disappears from Jennie's legs causing her to collapse and sits on the floor, pulling Jisoo to sit with her too while she's still in her arms.

"Jisoo..jisoo.." She speaks with a broken voice between the cries, "Jisoo.. it hurts."

Jisoo lowers her head and presses the side of her face to the side of Jennie's face, making her lips close to her ear and pulls her more tightly.

"It's over now.."

\- "It hurts so much!"

"I know..it's over.." she says as she strokes her head with so much tenderness.

"I'm here..don't worry..they can't hurt you anymore. You must be tired, you can rest now."

When she hears that, Jennie cries even harder again, weeping and sniffing, and doesn't calm down until after an hour of continuous crying when she falls asleep in her arms.

She was lost but now she is found.

🎶⏸

Meanwhile, Lisa who was watching them quietly, she hears short sniffs from behind, she turns to see Chaeyoung has started crying.

"Why are you crying too?" Lisa asks in a worried tone.

\- "Seeing them like this made me remember the time when my parents passed away, you were hugging me like Jisoo is doing now." Chaeyoung says as she wipes her tears to stop them from falling down.

"Stop, or you will make me to cry too!"

. . . . . . . .

Jisoo gets out of Jennie's room and Min Yoo behind her closes the door.

"Thank you for helping me carry her."

\- "Oh, it was nothing."

Jisoo walks toward the wing's chest, and looks at Lisa and Chaeyoung who are sitting silently with their hands on their thighs looking down.

Jisoo sits opposite them on the couch.

"Well, I think we have a lot to talk about.." Jisoo says staring at them sharply.

They look at her, wearing troubled expressions.

"Everything..tell me everything."

.

.

.

.

.

"So you really don't know how to write or read?" Jisoo asks looking at them questionably.

"Yes." Chaeyoung answers.

\- "And what about J-Jennie?"

Jisoo asks hesitantly, still feels strange when she speaks her name since they told her about it. Even talking to Lisa and Chaeyoung , she was wondering all the time if this is really happening and that these are their voices and she is sitting talking to them.

"I don't know about Jennie, she doesn't talk much about herself or her past." Lisa tells in a calm tone. "What happened earlier was the first time I saw her like this."

There is a moment of silence between them before Jisoo follows, "okay..you can go now. We'll talk tomorrow."

Lisa and Chaeyoung get up, bows to her and heads towards the room while Jisoo looks at the couch where they were sitting, staring into the void.

After entering their room, Min Yoo steps forward towards Jisoo.

"Mmm..ma'am?"

\- "Yes, Min Yoo." She says tiredly.

"About the business dinner.."

As soon as she hears him saying that, her eyes widens and jumps quickly off the couch, astonished, to then Min Yoo adds before she could speak, "Don't worry, the moment I got up here and saw you in that situation, I called him directly and apologized to him for coming. I postponed the appointment for tomorrow evening."

\- "Oh, I totally forgot. Damn!" She says letting out a breath if relief with one hand on her head and the other hand on her waist, "You saved me! "

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Jennie slowly wakes up, flips on the mattress playfully, stretching her body with a light smile on her face, unconsciously burying her face in the pillow a little, and then lays on her back while breathing comfortably. 

She had an excellent night's sleep.

As she was suffering from insomnia, interrupted sleep, excessive thinking, anxiety and nightmares, all of which prevented her from sleeping peacefully. This time, unlike previous times, was the first time that she slept without waking up repeatedly during the night or having nightmares.

Since she just woke up, she still doesn't remember what happened yesterday and doesn't know why she is so happy and reassured now. She stares at the ceiling, smiling and feeling content.

"Good morning."

Her smile disappears as soon as she hears this annoying voice, pulling her back from her beautiful moment to reality.

She quickly rises her upper half up to see Min Yoo standing near the door, and has put a breakfast tray on the make-up table. As soon as she sees him, everything happened yesterday comes down at her heavily and she remembers what happened between her and Jisoo.

She turns her head away as she closes her eyes and clenches her teeth, feeling ashamed and guilty.

" I hope you had a good sleep." Min Yoo adds calmly, drawing her attention to look at him.

"Mrs. Jisoo asked me to bring your breakfast to your room. Now I will go.."

She gazes at him a little and then lowers her head. Min Yoo turns around and is about to open the door when he stops and turns back looking at Jennie.

"I can understand why you did what you did," Jennie raises her head and looks at him confused to then he continues, "Anyone in your place would have done the same, in the end, you don't know Jisoo. Luck was on your side from the moment she caught you that night. If I were the one who did, I would have called the police immediately without wasting a second! And you were lucky again yesterday." 

He tells her in the most calmest tone as he looks at her coldly, placing his hand over the other.

"Didn't you ask yourself why the only lady of the mansion leaves her property and goes for a business dinner leaving people she doesn't know alone with only the servants? Didn't you ask yourself why she might trusted you so much? Or rather, did you think she trusted you in the first place?" 

He gives her a meaningful look as she looks at him with questioning eyes.

"The mansion appears weakly protected at first sight, but all its parts are connected together." He says turning his gaze around the room. "In the safe there are sensors that can't be turned off except with a special code that differs from the code of the safe and nobody knows it except Jisoo, even I don't know it." Looks back at her and follows, "If you don't turn it off, once you place your hand on the keyboard of the safe, the main door of the wing will close and the alarms will go on throughout the mansion. Do you understand what does this mean?" 

She lowers her gaze from embarrassment.

"It's not about whether she trust you or not, she knew from the start that you won't be able to do anything even if you want to. In other words, your plan failed before it even started." He finishes his words and leaves Jennie in a shock. 

Now everything makes sense to her, she was so desperate to the degree that she didn't think correctly. She was so soaked in her darkness that she didn't see the light that appeared before her. She had lost her hope in people and all that remained was her suspicious, resentment and wary of them.

Her tears begin to fall and she covers her face with her hands.

How stupid? how pathetic? How did she become like this? How did her heart become so dirty? Why didn't she see early the dark person she has become?

'The things I said to her, I hurt her. I know that well and yet she..'

She stills as she remembers how Jisoo embraced her.

Now that she has returned to her senses, now that she's no longer blind, she can see her now.

———————-  
To be continued  
———————-


	12. Remember Me

Chapter 11

Jisoo in her office working on the report that will be discussed today's evening. She hears knocking on The door and gives them permission to enter. 

It's Min Yoo, has come to tell her that Jennie had woken up.

"Ah well, thank you." 

Min Yoo gets out and Jisoo returns to her work, a few minutes passes trying to focus in her work, flips the papers aimlessly trying to think of the project in front of her but it's of no use. She's looking at the papers but her eyes see nothing, her mind is somewhere else.

She want to see her, talk to her and ask her about a lot of things, and at the same time, she knows that it's not the time for that. Both of them need to stay alone now, especially that she no longer knows what does she feel, various kinds of feelings are running inside her and she doesn't know what she will do or say if she sees her now. 

"Why am I so nervous?" She says as she leans back on her chair.

A small part of her is still angry, and when she recalls what Jennie said yesterday, that anger vanishs and she can only understand her.

Everything happened quickly and without her awareness, she found herself hugging her, everytime she remembers that, she gets embarrassed and feels troubled.

"Ugh! what was I saying at the time for heaven's sake? 'I'm here'? Really Jisoo?" She grumbles as she leans forward on the desk.

Maybe She'll talk to her after lunch.

Once she thinks of that, her stomach starts to flip again.

"Damn, I feel nervous again!"

. . . . . . . . .

"Lisa, I'm sorry.." Chaeyoung starts breaking the silence as she was looking sheepishly at Lisa and sometimes on the floor for the past few minutes,sitting on the edge of her bed, "if I didn't speak at the time-"

"Not your fault." Lisa reassures firmly, still staring at the empty space in front of her, sitting in the middle of the bed with her legs forming an inverted V, and her arms resting on them. 

"She had caught us already, it was inevitable."

\- "What will happen now? What do you think she will do?"

"I don't know, let's just pray that she let us go peacefully."

\- "You know what? I feel like we don't have to worry, in the end, this is Jisoo we're talking about." She says hopefully with a smile on her face.

Lisa looks at her blankly, a little taken back by that, then she chuckles.

"Right? It's Jisoo." She falls silent for a second then she adds with a weak smile, "Strange, we didn't even have known her for a month, and yet we got to know her one way or another."

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

"Jisoo! I'm just here to tell you that I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said all that hurtful words!"

"Jisoo! I'm sorry, please forgive me.."

"Jisoo! You can hit me if you want, I deserve it!"

"Jisoo! I really regret that I called you a spoiled girl, I mean, you're spoiled but in a good way.." she pauses for a moment staring at her reflection, "Aaah! what is this? All of them are of no use! All are bad! How will I apologize to her!" She say ruffling her hair helplessly.

Jennie was standing in front of the mirror, rehearsing what she's gonna say to Jisoo, after she took a good bath, done her hair and wore decent and nice clothes. Every time she felt the words weren't enough and that they were meaningless, she wanted to apologize to her for so much and at the same time she didn't want it to appear vulgar or dishonest.

She turns away from the mirror and goes and sits in the middle of the bed, pouting.

"I have to apologize to her, I must apologize to her..but how?" She mumbles to herself, feeling frustrated. "Damn, the time has already passed the lunchtime period and I haven't gone out yet."

Even if she prepares herself with words, she feels as though they will all disappear as soon as she sees her. She doesn't know what will happen if she sees her now, feeling very shy.

'Oh damn it!'

She rises striding to the door and before she goes out she stands in front of the mirror, checks her hair again and makes sure of her appearance for the last time. 

"Okay Jennie, you can do it!"

. . . . . . . . . . .

Jisoo at her office had sent after both Lisa and Chaeyoung to talk to them. In front of her desk, there's medium-hight table, on which two bags were placed, and around the table there are the sofas. She's standing in front of the desk, leaning on its edge, holding a file of what she's looking at. 

She hears Knocking on the door and lets them in, they're Lisa and Chaeyoung.

"Please take a seat."

They sit on the sofa next to each other, facing her.

"Well, Lisa ..Chaeyoung. I would like to talk to you about something-"

Before she completes, Lisa gets up from her place and clarifies, "Before you decide anything, you should know that Chaeyoung has nothing to do for what happened, I'm the one who took part in it, so hold me accountable."

"What are you saying?" Chaeyoung protests, getting up quickly when she hears that. "We will both be punished." She turns toward Jisoo, who looks at them surprised.

"Don't listen to her, She's stupid and doesn't know what to say. Do what you want to do to both of us!" She informs her firmly.

"Ya! Park Chaeyoung! Stay out of it! Just go and eat something!" Lisa snap at her.

\- "I swear if you don't stop this you will be the next on my meal list!"

Lisa and Chaeyoung persists to argue while Jisoo is looking at them dumbfounded, until she breaks in a laugh, drawing their attention. 

"Calm down, I wasn't going to do anything," she assures them with smiley eyes. "All I wanted to talk about is this.."

She hands the file to Lisa and when she opens it, she sees pictures of a house with a contract sheet. 

With furrowed eyebrows she turns her gaze to Jisoo, confused.

"If you like the house, you can move in immediately, and also if you need anything else, I can provide it for you."

Their mouth drops when they look at the house, very beautiful and suitable for them. They look at her and their facial expressions are scattered, "But..but..this is a lot," Lisa says feeling touched, "we..we can't accep-"

"Lisa..Chaeyoung, you're both are good girls and also beautiful." She says her last word with a warm smile, "I don't want to see you as I saw you the first time, I don't feel comfortable leaving two girls like you just like that, so I hope you accept this one from me."

Their expressions softens, looking at her with gratitude.

"Are we.." Lisa starts bashfully as she lowers her head and looks at the file, messing with its end," are we going to see you again? If we move to this house, will we be able to see you again?"

"Maybe, I don't know, I won't be staying on Jeju Island for long.. but if I happen to pass near this neighborhood, I will make sure to pass by you." Jisoo answers her, her tone gentle and her warm smile doesn't leave her face, making them feel sad.

So this is what goodbye feels like, knowing that your time with a unique person is almost over, the melancholy that fills your chest then.

Lisa looks at Chaeyoung and they both stare at each other meaningfully for moments before Chaeyoung nods to her, then she looks back at Jisoo.

"Then we don't want it." Lisa says confidently.

\- "What? Why?" Jisoo lets out surprised, a little taken back by her.

"We would like to..we would like to stay here."

Jisoo stares at them blankly.

"We don't want it, the place doesn't matter. If it's possible we would like to stay.." she hesitates a little, feeling shy of what she want to ask for, "We would like to stay with you."

. . . . . . . .

Both smiling, Lisa and Chaeyoung heads out from the office, Lisa puts her arm around Chaeyoung's neck as they walk their way to the top floor when they meet Jennie as she was coming down. They stop and look at her a little with contentment.

Surprised by their happy facial expressions because they seemed to be at Jisoo, Jennie stares back at them.

Lisa smiles at her, patters her shoulder, and they continue walking passing her.

Jennie stays standing confused by Lisa's gesture but she doesn't dwell on it. She goes towards the office and stands at the door, takes a deep breath and lifts her hand. Intends to knock on the door, she stops briefly and takes another deep breath and then knocks on the door.

"Enter please."

Once she hears her voice, her heart starts beating fast and she becomes more nervous.

Slowly opening the door, she finds Jisoo sitting in her chair behind the desk looking at her laptop through her medical glasses, not paying attention to the person who just opened the door.

Once Jennie's eyes fell on Jisoo, she got overwhelmed by feelings and felt a great desire to cry again, but she stops herself.

Jisoo looks up and sees that it's Jennie. This is unexpected, as she hasn't sent after her yet. 

Surprised by her presence, Jisoo stares at Jennie for a few moments, then gets up and turns around the desk until she stands in front of it and leans against it.

"Ah- yes..you can sit here."

Jisoo points toward the sofa facing the desk.

After Jennie has sat, the silence prevails between them. Jennie was intertwining her hands with each other looking down and Jisoo was looking around the office thinking about something to say.

'Come on, Jennie, Speak! This is starting to get awkward..apologize!'

"Mmm..I was about to send after you.." Jisoo starts pulling her back from her thoughts to look up at her, "Seems there's no need for it now.." Jisoo finishes awkwardly and Jennie looks back down.

'What the hell am I saying?'

Silence reigns between them again and Jisoo looks at Jennie for a prolonged moments, takes a breath and thinks about how she feels now and what she really wants to say to her, the awkwardness she feels disappears and she becomes more determined.

"Before we start, I first need to know who you are?" Jisoo starts again calmly and Jennie looks up to her questioningly, "Tell me..what is your name?" Jisoo asks, looking at her with eager eyes.

She knows her name but she wants to hear it from her.

\- "My name is, Jennie. Jennie Ruby Jane kim" Jennie says calmly as she looks at her with her eyes glistening with warmth.

"Jennie.. so you're Jennie."

Something floats in the air around them as they stare at each other, they both don't know what it is, but it is something that makes them feel as if they are connected somehow, their heavy feelings maybe..their heart beating maybe..they only know that it makes them feel that at this very moment and in this place as if they are the only ones in this world.

Jisoo lowers her gaze as she continues, "Umm- from where did you know about me being..being.." 

\- "I heard the maids talking in the kitchen."  
Jennie respond quickly and sheepishly sparing Jisoo from the rest of the question.

"Oh.. I expected something like that.." Jisoo says nodding slowly in disappointment.

Another silence fills the room, but Jisoo doesn't want this. She wants to hear her speak more, wants to hear her voice more, this sultry yet so smooth voice..whether it's curiosity or something else this is how she feels right now and so she adds, "From what I understood so far..There are men out there chasing you for their money that your father stole. Is there anything else I need to know?"

\- "No, that's all." 

She can't tell her about Matthew or about his other work, she can't drag her into that world.

"If you give them money, will they leave you alone?"

\- "Mostly,yeah..I mean, they don't have any other reason to go after me." Jennie explains.

Jisoo steps forward and sits at the edge of the table in front of Jennie, puts her hand on one of the bags and directs her gaze towards Jennie.

"In this bag there is ten million dollars, and in the other bag additional money that can help you establish your life.."

Jennie's eyes widen as she looks at her as if she knew what Jisoo is about to say.

"Take this bag and give it to them. "

\- "No! of course not!" Jennie refuses strongly.

"Jennie, you can't stay on the run forever.."

\- "I don't care, I won't give your money to them!" She dissents, "I.. "

She looks down at her hands that were laying on her thighs while clinging tightly to her pants, " I wasn't thinking right, I acted foolishly. You aren't obligated to do anything to me. If you report me now, it's what I deserv-"

Jennie pauses when she feels Jisoo's soft hand on top of her hand, gently pressing on it.

She looks up and finds Jisoo looking at her with a great concern.

Looking directly at Jennie's eyes, making sure to keep her tone calm and gentle, she follows:  
"Jennie, it's not your fault..stop blaming yourself. Please take it and get your life back."

Jennie stares at her for a moment, can't help but feel how messed up and ironic her situation is.

'what life? the only life I felt was in your arms.'

Jisoo pulls her hand away and gets up and once she lifted it Jennie felt the emptiness surrounds her again.

"If you're insistent, let me talk to them.." she stands in front of her desk as she did before. 

"No! Don't do anything! They are dangerous people!" She warns her.

\- "You know they are dangerous and yet you don't want to take it?" She asks in disbelief as she turns around giving her back to Jennie, searching for something between the files.

"Do you really expect me to let you go outside the mansion after knowing that?"

They were able to talk to each other normally because they didn't mention what happened yesterday so far. Jennie noticed that because Jisoo kept the conversation runs about money and her problem only, but she didn't lose sight of the important matter and she still feels its weight on her chest.

She has to apologize.

When she sees Jisoo has turned around, she gathers her courage, gets up, and saunters until she stands behind Jisoo. Clasping her hands together and processing what she's gonna say.

"At least let me make sure you stay safe-"

When Jisoo finds the file she searched for, she turns around and gets surprised by Jennie's presence this close, making her slightly wince with her right hand holding the file and Jennie still looking down.

"Jennie?"

Jennie moves her hand and grasp Jisoo's free hand, holding it with the same strength as Jisoo did before.

Jisoo can see Jennie's lips slightly trembling, her mouth that opens a little and closes, her eyebrows tilted down towards the end and the way she's holding her hand..All those makes her understand what Jennie aches to say.

"Ji-Jisoo.." in a faint voice.

Jisoo closes her fingers around Jennie's hand and tightens her grip.

"Jennie, I know.. you don't have to say anything."

\- "No. I have to.." Jennie insists, "Jisoo.. I'm..I'm.." she trails off not able to find the right words.

How all the expressions of apology are not enough? And all words seem useless..how can she express it all at once? How can she convey her feelings to her with a few words without appearing incomplete? How is it possible with all the huge number of words exist in this world and there isn't one single word sufficient? 

Why does 'I'm sorry' seems so little?

Jisoo gets closer to her when she sees her eyes glistening with tears.

"Jennie, I know, believe me. I know what you feel now, no need to say anything. It's done." she assures her, keeping the same calm tone.

Yes, it's done. She was right, from the beginning, their end was clear.

Jennie now feels sorry and wants to apologize, she's aware of this and aware of why she can't say anything either because she herself feels exactly the same. Whatever she says it will seem incomplete and insufficient, and she's also aware that what she's about to say now, will be harsh on her maybe but it's a must.

"Jennie, just take the money and live the life you always wanted and don't allow what happened yesterday to stop you from that. Don't let it weigh your chest," she pauses a little and then, "no offense taken, not as if we were close anyway." Indicating that hurtful words only hurt if they came from those who are close to you. 

She slips her hand away gently and goes to sit behind her desk and pretends to be working on her laptop as she adds, "I hope you think carefully of what I told you."

Jennie stays still for a few moments absorbing her words before She turns around and shuffles towards the door and leaves the office. Once she closes the door behind her, her tears start falling.

Her words are true, a person like her cannot stay with someone like her, connot be close to her and she deserves the best..she knows this well, but why does this fact hurts her so much now?

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Mr. Park in his Mercedes, on his way home after attending the business party he had with his son and a few partners.

During the road, Mr. Park notices that the driver, instead of driving forward, he heads to the road on the right, changing the road. This made him surprised and he adjusts his sitting.

"What are you doing? This's the wrong way!" He scolds him but the driver seems unbothered.

They enter a dark and secluded road, bordered with trees.

"Are you deaf? I'm talking to you! Where are you heading?"

The driver stops the car on the side of the road.

"Why did you stop? What the hell are yo-"

With a swift move, he turns towards Mr. Park and takes out a pistol, shots him two times in the chest and gets out of the car. 

Throws the weapon away into the woods, removes the gloves and throws them too. He enters the woods for a few minutes and goes out on his bike, and heads in the opposite direction from they were facing.

. . . . . . . . .

10:30 p.m., Jisoo has just returned from the work dinner. Min Yoo takes her coat at the door and she plods her way up.

She reaches her room and enters, flicks the light on, drags herself to bed and flops herself onto it.

Tired and exhausted, it was a long meeting. 

Stays resting on her stomach for minutes while breathing steadily to then she lies on her back and raises her upper half, she has to change her clothes and bathe and then go to sleep.

She gets up fully, heads towards the makeup table, and begins to remove the earrings from her ears when her eyes falls on a white folded paper placed on the table and pauses.

Furrowing in confusion, she lowers her hand, takes the paper, and unfolds it.

It's a message.

she starts reading it,

« Jisoo, I know what I'm going to say is unfair this way, but please understand me.

It is also unfair to take your money that you earned with your hardwork and pay it to people who don't deserve it. If anyone has to be held accountable, then it will be my father. If someone has to pay, then it will be him. If anyone has to be punished, it's him. I don't want to involve you with me anymore.

I only took a little money that is enough for me to get out of Jeju. I know someone who was friends with my dad, he can help me with this. I promise that I will return it to you as soon as I could.

Jisoo.. I'm sorry for not being able to find the right words that can erase the harm I caused to you, to fix the damage that is done..I'm sorry for not being able to offer you anything in the end..I'm sorry because I only know this word, I'm sorry. 

I'm sorry that you had to hear all that from me..I'm sorry that I entered your life like this..I'm sorry to the limit that has no limits.

Jisoo..you have the most beautiful and honest smile I have ever seen, Sorry I said it was fake, nobody is fake other than me.

I'm sorry that I called you a spoiled girl, I don't think that a person who has a welcoming warm heart like yours is a spoiled person. I'm sorry that I interfered with your personal life, I was just a foolish girl, feeling jealous.

And Thank you.. Thank you for bringing me to me again. You brought my heart back to life.

You are the God's gift to me and the heaven's apology.

I will always remember you, I don't think I will ever get past you. Perhaps in another life and other circumstances, if we were born again and met you there, I will never leave your side.

Perhaps it's many years from now that we meet again, maybe we can get to know each other and become friends. How I wish that could be achieved. I would stay with you and contemplate your smile forever. Only if I could keep looking at you, that would be enough for me. I would be very happy if you accepted me then.

But now, someone like me will only bring you harm. So it's for the better.

I would have asked you to leave me a small place in your heart that reminds you of me, but I trust that I have not left you any good memories about me. And that will be my endless regret and my unforgivable guilt.

I Pray for you to stay safe and healthy.

Yours sincerely, 

Jennie. »

Cold silence...

"Ah, so this is how her handwriting looks like..It's beautiful."

A drop of salty water falls on the paper.

"As you want, Jennie, do as you like. You're right, this is better..this is better-"  
She pauses when a small cry gets stock in her throat.

"If this's better..Why my chest feels so tight right now?"

—————————  
To be continued   
—————————

A/N: 2 chapters left


	13. Jisoo’s Past

Chapter 12

🎶▶️ The K2 OST - Witching Hour

A friend..What is a friend?

A person who can change you either for better or worse? either they will be the point of stability in your life or the point of refraction, either they make you more open to others or more closed?

I don't know because I never had one, at least I know that aside from my mother, none of them was a friend.

This is what I learned over time, starting from my entire childhood.

In the beginning, I thought that my father's family behavior towards me and their inferior view of me was normal, them and the rest of the people, until I began to notice their different behavior with my brothers and the rest of the kids..until I heard their conversation secretly behind closed doors..

"An illegitimate daughter, what a disgrace to the family's honor."

Illegitimate daughter.. a love child..

Perhaps that is why those words doesn't affect me anymore, because they called me that a lot that I became used to it.

The house where I lived with my mother was the only place I could breathe comfortably, every other place was stifling, especially at school; Each day was a battle to resist all that bullying and all those hurtful and cynical words. They used to call me a polluted and dirty girl because of that, I don't think they really understood its meaning, nor did I, they just followed the actions of their mothers and fathers and the view of society.

How did they know? Well..I had three brothers from my father and his wife; The oldest of them was at university and the other two, one of them in my age and the other was two years older than us.

Apparently my stepmother was talking about my mother and me all the time, sowing her hatred in her children and spreading her poison into their hearts, which made them hate me as well, and therefore they were telling all the children what their mother was telling them and the rest of the kids were following the bandwagon.

My father knew that his second family didn't accept us, so he always tried not to let that affect us, he used to buy me the most luxurious beautiful clothes, the best stationery and the best gifts. Everyone who saw me in school knew that I'm Kim Sehun's daughter and that what prevented them from bullying me physically.

The things that I owned were making the other kids feeling jealous and envy, and sometimes they wooed to me just to buy them what they want and once I do, they get back to throwing hate at me and talk dirty about me.

I was feeling so down that on my 12th birthday when my father asked me if I wanted something on this occasion, and I remember that so clearly, I answered:

"A friend. I want to buy a friend."

I was genuinely serious about my answer and so excited, believing that people like us are able to buy everything.

His facial expressions changed immediately then became pale and surprised, and there was no need to tell him what was going on at school because he understood everything then. The next day I found myself in a new school faraway from my brothers.

At the new school, I was able to cope with some of my classmates and go out for lunch together at the break. It wasn't a prestigious and well-known school as the previous one - where only high class students were admitted - but with a good reputation frequented by students of all social classes.

At some point I found myself among a group of narcissistic girls, I don't know how I ended up with them, but I know that I didn't feel comfortable, not even for a moment. All their talk was about the clothes of others, how they dress horribly and how their own clothes were from a well-known brand, and how one of their house was large enough to have more than one swimming pools.

I started making excuses so I wouldn't go with them and kept eating my lunch in the garden behind the school, and that was when I got to know Hae-won.

She was the first person that I felt the bond of friendship with, we clicked together pretty well and the place behind the school became our meeting point, we were both introverted and that was the first time I really felt at ease and that I had a friend who I belong to and belongs to me.

I stopped walking with those girls and kept hanging out with Hae-won, at that they started talking behind my back and spreading various rumors. One of the girls, her mother was a friend of my father's wife, so them knowing about me was only a matter of time.

It returned as it was in my old school and bullies and bad talk returned even more stronger. Hae-won's colleagues were even trying to push her not to meet me but she didn't listen to them. This made us a goal for everyone who wanted to become popular in school and to gain attention, yet she stayed with me.

Until that cursed accident..until those dark blue eyes showed up..

Things started to take another turn, a darker and more harsh one.

Soon after the accident happened I went back to school, everyone was looking at me with disgust. One of them nicknamed me a monster and everyone started to call me that, bullying increased and everyone turned against me.

This wasn't going just at school, even the house I moved in to, my other father's house with his wife and my brothers, it was a living hell.

my stepmother was nice and friendly with me in front of my dad and as soon as he gets out, she takes off her mask and stops acting. She always reminded me of my mother's accident and how bad I was of a daughter and that I had to die along with her, whenever she mentioned my mother she called her a slut, looking for the slightest reason to scold me, telling Min Yoo off constantly for accompanying me most of the time.

But she is right, she and everyone else in my school, I am a monster. 

I deserve everything that was said about me and that fact will continue to haunt me throughout my life. Even my father, I felt that there was a small part inside of him, hated me for what I did.

Since everyone around me already hated me and looked at me as a monster, I decided to become one to those who saw me that way. 

For Hae-won, I stopped talking to her, I didn't want her to befriend someone like me and when she tried to talk me I pushed her away and then she didn't talk to me at all. I was saddened by the fact that this was all it took for our friendship to end, deep down I wanted her to hold onto me.

The worst thing that you would do to a person is to stop trying with them, to give up on them easily, to not give them a hand to hold into. 

To not give them another chance.

I know this because they never gave me one, they judged me from the right beginning without me even knowing what my fault is and casted me out.

Those are my scars and my deepest I kept them hidden so well that even I sometimes would believe the face I put on every morning.

And since I know the cold disgusted look given by a stranger who doesn't know anything about you, I smiled for those who didn't know me or anything about me, in the end, they were mere strangers.

I isolated myself and centered all my focus on my studies and self-development in many ways; studied business early on, learned development and design languages, went into self-defense lessons, exercised a lot and found dancing as a way of mental distraction. I graduated from high school and started working at my father's company. At the same time, I was attending university as well, and after two years I was chosen to take over the presidency of one of our company branches.

In the end, I learned that money really does buy friends, but not the kind of friends you hope for.

Friends of money were exactly like money, temporary.

I thought that that was it, and that I would continue like this for the rest of my life. I have had enough of the fake, two-faced people around me, and I thought I had completely given up my desire to form relationships, of any kind, especially after my relationship with Jin Young.

Then Jennie came along.

She was the person who ignited that hope in me again..While all I wanted in the beginning was to help her, I was gradually becoming a victim of those cat's eyes if hers. 

Because she was true to her feelings.

All of those I met had their fawning smile always printed on their face, all of them were hiding their negative feelings and hatred towards me only because I was Kim Sehun's daughter, only because I have money.

Jennie on the other hand, despite her urgent need for money, despite her bad situation, none of her facial expressions, nor of her personality changed and her opinion was clear about me. Her eyes told me everything, I was feeling like she knew beforehand that this whole calmness that I am, was just a big wall to protect me. 

I was feeling like she was looking through me, feeling exposed. She never flattered me, and when she got angry, annoyed or displeased, she showed it openly. Always challenging me, always opposing me and getting on my nerves. 

She is true to her feelings, 

Very transparent.

And I hated this, why is she looking at me like that? She doesn't even know anything about me? What does she not like about me? 

'What should I do to make her like me?'

Without my awareness I became thinking like that, and perhaps this's what made me feel so pathetic, that I was the only one thinking like that and on my own I decided that we became closer somehow as days passed by.

I knew I was deceiving myself the moment I found out that she was lying to me.

That's why I was angry, angry to the point of drowning..to the point of blindness. All I was thinking of then was to keep them out of my sight so that I wouldn't face reality.

The reality that knocked me out of my senses, and what it made me realize..

My greatest anger was not because she pretended to be mute, nor because she tried to steal me, as soon as she spoke about herself, I knew that she would never hurt me.

My greatest anger was about the absurdity of my thinking, my stupidity, and my fragility. I got angry because I realized how desperate I was..I got angry because it made me realize how lonely I was all these years.

And when she broke down in front of me, I couldn't ignore it. I saw myself in her, the weak forsaken girl who hadn't seen even one hand stretched out to her, I saw her pain and how similar it was to mine.

I saw her truth and what Jennie really is.

I hated how much she made me feel closer to myself, I hated how much that was giving me comfort.

I hated how I felt so lighthearted whenever I'm with her..

And her letter made it worse,

Jennie.. is not a bad person, the world is.

🎶⏸  
.. . . . . . . . . 

"Min Yoo!" Jisoo calls out loudly as she descends from the top floor.

-"Yes ma'am."

"Where are the maids? Did they see Jennie leave? when did she left?" She asks rapidly.

"Jisoo!" A voice from behind her cuts in and she turns around and sees Lisa standing at the stares.

"An hour and a half ago since you came back," Lisa says in a hurried tone. "an hour and a half has passed since she left!"

As soon as she hears that, Jisoo rushes back up to her room and quickly changes her formal clothes to jeans and white t-shirts with a black jacket and trainers. She strides quickly to her office to take the keys of her car and heads to the first floor.

"Min Yoo, quickly get in a car, go to the marina and check all the ships that are leaving. Quickly!" She orders him before she gets out from the mansion.

Jisoo goes out to the parking lot and heads to her car, gets in and activates the (GPS) and sets its destination for Jeju Island Airport as she runs the engine.

She passes the front gate of the mansion, and Min Yoo follows her on his way to the marina.

The darkness of the night and its overwhelming calm was broken by the sound of the engine of the car as it tried to keep pace with the winds, Jisoo was driving at her fastest speed, praying that she's not late.

'Jennie, if you were broken before, I've been too.

If you feel that you are alone, I have felt that my whole life, not finding in those around you even one person to confide in, not even one to hold in your arms, I felt that too..

I also wanted to leave everything behind, to go away without leaving a trace, but no..not after that I met you.

Because we met for a reason, and I live for the little things, the little details and the reasons.

So please, just wait a little more, I'll get to you... just a little bit more.'

.

.

.

.

.

Jisoo arrives at the airport and pulls up, gets out if the car and dashes inside as she looks around. She looks at the wide screen that shows the arrival and departure times of the airlines; all departing aircraft had take-off time at 8:00 pm, except for the plane to Seoul, Bangkok-Thailand and other foreign countries. thirty minutes remains for the Bangkok plane to take off while the Seoul plane takes off at twelve o'clock.

She is not quite sure, but she estimates that it is impossible for Jennie to go to Bangkok because probably she doesn't have knowledge of its language and the same thing for the rest of the foreign countries, so there is only one possibility left, which is Seoul plane.

She starts running around the airport and searching, in hope that she might find her, but ends up with nothing, especially that the airport at night is not crowded and you can distinguish passers-by easily. She takes out her phone and calls Min Yoo.

"Min Yoo! Did you arrive at the port? Is she there?"

\- "I have arrived, but no, she isn't. All the ships are still here, I asked one of the captains and they said they couldn't sail today because the weather is not stable and the tide is high."

"Good. Nevertheless, We still don't know what will happen so stay there. If anything happens, tell me immediately!"

She hangs up and goes back to stand at the gate leading to Seoul with her eyes wandering on the other gates. Since she arrived, she never sat and her eyes were constantly examining people's faces.

"Jennie..where are you now? where did you go?" She mumbles to herself helplessly.

Is there another way to go out of Jeju that she doesn't know? Is she late?

.

.

.

.   
.  
.  
.  
.

12:00 o'clock, the plane is about to take off, the airport is almost empty, and the air is getting cold.

Jisoo is still standing at the gate, her lips turned dark red from the cold. No contact from Min Yoo and there's still no sight of Jennie.

the plane took off and Jisoo started to lose hope, there is no reason to stay at the airport any longer.

As soon as she felt that it is over, and it's too late, that she couldn't make it, a heavy feeling came down to her chest, making her take her breath with difficulty. A coldness stronger than the cold air surrounds her, filling her body. Her heart hurts and her eyes are starting to burn slightly.

She has no reason to stay in this place and at the same time she doesn't want to return to the mansion. She can't tolerate the mansion's dreariness now, and just like that the world become dull.

What a frustrating feeling.

She goes out of the airport and stands beside her car, doesn't know where to go and what to do. She leans against the car door, stares into a void, feeling the knot at her throat has grown more. She calls Min Yoo and tells him that there is no need for him to stay there any longer and to return to the mansion, to then she hangs up and returns to her own world.

She needs something to relief the pain in her chest, a medicine to make the headache go away. She needs that feeling again.

She needs Jennie. 

Anything..anything related to Jennie will help, something to remind her of her. It doesn't have to be Jennie herself, her sharp mad look is enough, her hair tie is enough..a picture of her is enough..

Oh right..she doesn't even have a picture of her.

Their time was so little for her to dwell on it and yet..

'That letter..'

Jisoo moves away from the door, turns around, and opens it when a sudden realization strucks her mind and remembers then something Lisa said to her previously, when she questioned her.

**

"We came from the village that is surrounded by the woods at the end, as well as Jennie."

**

"The woods.. " she mutters as she furrows in realization, "when I first saw them, they were in the hall that opens onto the back garden, which leads to the woods! So the village must be located on the other side then." She finishes as she gets in the car hurriedly.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Jisoo arrives at the place, parks her car on the side of the street, locks it and heads towards the village. The street lights starts to disappear little by little as she approaches the village, replaced by the darkness of the night, reduced a little by the moonlight.

She arrives into the village and walks around with her eyes looking for someone to show her her destination, with the help of her phone flashlight.

She isn't thinking that she might find Jennie here, she's just hoping to find something related to Jennie, to know about her more, would be even better if she found her house.

She walked a distance inside the village and there's still no one. That's when she notices a small booth that is a distance away, on its hood a small light hanging, that turnes off and on constantly.

She approaches it and finds an old man who looks so old that she barely thinks he's alive. Doesn't think that she will benefit anything if she asked him about her, but she has no other choice.

"Hmm, excuse me, Ajusshi? Can you hear me?"

He turns to her with an angry look on his face and scolds her, "Of course I can hear you! Do you see me deaf or what? Just because I'm old!" 

\- "Oh, apologize!" she says bowing awkwardly. "That's not what I meant-"

"What does a girl like you do here at this time of night?" He digresses suddenly making her stare at him for a second.

\- "I'm looking for a house that was inhabited by a girl called Jennie.. Jennie Ruby Jane Kim."

"Jennie Ruby Jane Kim.." he repeats her name slowly as if he is thinking and falls silent for a while, "No. I don't remember a person with that name."

-"Are you sure?"

"What? Do you mean that I'm lying to you?" He grumbles.

\- "Oh no..not at all. Sorry and Thank you for your help." She dismisses quickly, bows to him and completes her path.

As soon as she moves away, the old man calls her from behind.

"Hey! girl! Are you still here?"

Jisoo speeds back to him, wearing hopeful expression.

"Ruby Jane.. I remember this name, that drunkard around the clock used to say it a lot. I remembered it now because he still ows me money."

The old man shows her the location of the house, as it was near the woods. She Thanks him and goes according to his directions, using the flashlight of her phone.

She finds an old shappy one-storey wooden house. Its door is broken, and it looks like as if someone had broken it forcefully.

'Is this Jennie's house?'

———————————  
To be continued  
———————————


	14. Keep You Close (Final)

Chapter 13 - Finale

With Slow steps, she moves towards the door and before entering it, she takes a deep breath and completes her path to the inside.

After the door there is a short corridor, after it there is an empty space separating the rest of the rooms, it's the hall maybe. To her left is the kitchen, and next to it is the bathroom while to her right there are two rooms. Everything inside the house is upside down; Scattered objects and broken furniture.

"What happened here for heaven's sake?" She mutters looking around. 

As she directs the flashlight around, her gaze falls into a small, inverted frame between the objects. She squats and and lifts it off the ground, flips it over and directs the light on it as she stands back up.

Its glass is broken but she can see the picture, a picture of a teenage girl with a grown man beside her and both are smiling. She can tell from the features of the girl that that is Jennie and this man must be her father. 

"She's cute from a young age." She mutters, smiling as she stares at Little Jennie's picture, to then she looks around again. 

'So this is really her house.'

She flips the frame back, opens it, extracts the image, and throws the frame. Folds the picture in the middle so that only Jennie is showing, folds it so well that the folding line appears clear and sharp and then tears it slowly according to it.

She hides the part of the picture that shows Jennie in her jacket and wrinkles the other part aggressively.

Yes.. she hates Jennie's father.

Turning to the side, she walks and enters the first room to her right. It's scattered, messy and the wardrobe, in addition to the bed, were upside down. As she walks further inside she can hear the sound of the glass crashing under her shoe, and in one of the corners of the room there are a group of empty bear bottles. Obviously this room belongs to her father because all the clothes on the floor are men clothes and also because of the presence of bear bottles.

Backing away from this room, she heads to the other room, it's also scattered. The wardrobe is still in place, but its contents have also been scattered and thrown to the ground. She also notices that many notebooks are thrown on floor. Walking inside, she squats and takes one of them, and sees it's mathematics notes, her school notebook.

Jisoo starts opening them one by one and what she notices in each notebook is that Jennie was leaving the first page to write her information on;

Name: Jennie Kim Ruby Jane

Grade: A-2, second year

Material: xxx

And at the end of the page, she drew small cute hearts.

Jisoo chuckles as she looks at them, she saw another side of her.

After opening the notebooks, she puts the phone aside, starts picking up the clothes, and then folds them. Most of her clothes were black, she must have liked this color.

At every piece of clothing she was lifting, she would stop and look at it, remove the dust off of it by shaking it in the air forcefully and then hold it close to her, and lastly she would fold and return it to the wardrobe.

Her eyes lay on a few pieces in one of the lower drawers of the wardrobe that still have not fallen to the ground and are still folded. She pulls one out, takes the phone and directs the light on it..it's a white T-shirt with cartoon drawing of a bear in pink color printed on it.

Again seeing such a thing makes her chuckle, She thinks how cute Jennie would be if she wore it. 

Her smile disappears the moment she remembers that Jennie is no longer here for her to wear it.

not tomorrow..

And not after tomorrow..

And she won't see her again.

She sits on her knees, turns off the light, and puts the phone beside her. No matter how bright the place around her, it cannot light the darkness that has surrounded her heart.

Before she lifts the piece of clothing she was holding to her face to inhale its smell, her tears gather and fall first, She can't hold them back anymore. As she close her eyes, she brings it closer to her face.

The smell of the T-shirt was like the smell of cheap soap, but she prefers it over the expensive scents that filled the luxurious places.

She stills when she hears the sound of the door opening followed by the sound of rummage and objects scattering.

"Haash! Those bastards! They left nothing intact!"

Jisoo's tears stop falling suddenly and she raises her face off the piece of clothing, furrowing, not believing the voice she heard just now.

Jisoo gets up, taking her phone and stands upright, hoping that she didn't lose her mind and started imagining voices that don't exist. With steady careful steps, she walks out of the room.

The place is dark and she barely can see anything due to the low light from outside.

As her eyes adjust to the darkness, she can see now a vogue glimpse of the person in front of her, And their body line is familiar to her. She approaches them slowly announcing her presence in this house and drawing their attention.

"Wh-Who are you?" The girl blurts out after being startled for a moment at this sudden appearance, who's getting closer to her, "Don't come close! I warn you, I'm- I'm carrying a dangerous weapon with my hand now!" She lies, it's obvious she doesn't hold anything in her hand.

"If you try to do something-"

Jisoo and the other girl come face to face, both looking shocked, except that Jisoo was shocked as if she had won the lottery and the other girl was as if she had seen a ghost.

"Jisoo?"

\- "Jennie!"

.

.

.  
.  
.  
.

"Jisoo! Jisoo, stop! let's talk! Stop it!"

Jisoo was striding fast with her left hand tightening its grip over Jennie's right wrist as she dragged her along. Without turning around, making her focus on the way ahead, she just keeps ignoring her.

"Jisoo! I'm talking to you! Where are you taking me?"

\- "To the car. We're going back to the mansion." Jisoo finally informs her simply, in a sharp and calm tone.

"What? No! I don't want to! Jisoo!" Jennie objects trying to free her wrist, "Let me go..I'm leaving from here!"

\- "You are not going anywhere." She states nonchalantly.

"I told you about my reason for this in the letter! I told you everything, now let me go!"

No answer..

"Jisoo, stop! You are hurting me!"

They approach the main highway when she stops and turns around, facing Jennie.

"Yes, you told me everything, but this was only your part of the talk! Without listening to what I have, you decided on your own that this is better!" She finishes her words angrily, holds her wrist, and starts walking again.

Jennie wanders off with her thoughts, a little taken back by Jisoo's words. She can't see her expressions well, the darkness prevents her, but she can see her body line and movements.

"Yes! It's better! Just let me go my way! Someone like me.." she trails off, feeling her sense of guilt rising again.

\- "Someone like you is what?" Jisoo stresses as she continue to drag her, getting closer to the street.

" 'Someone like me..someone like me..' Don't you get tired of saying it?" Jisoo denounces mimicking her, "What's wrong with someone like you?"

\- "Everything! Everything is wrong with me!" Jennie snaps feeling more guilty than ever, more confused, "Now let me go! You said it yourself, it's not like we were close to each other! So why are you doing this? What is your concern with me?" 

No answer, but she can feel Jisoo tightening her handgrip more around her wrist.

"Jisoo! Stop it now and tell me!" She orders loudly, "Why are you doing this?"

She loses her patience when she doesn't hear an answer from her again and asks again, "Jisoo!-"

"Because I don't want you to leave!" She blurts out louder than Jennie's tone from before as she turns to face her again, leaving her hand.

\- "What?" Jennie says in a low tone, dumbfounded.

"Jennie. RubyJane. Kim. You're so selfish, do you know that?" She says as she approaches Jennie slowly, "You say what you have and go because this is easier for you, only thinking about yourself..Did you ask me whether I agree with you or not? You didn't even bother yourself to know? Who gave you the right to decide what's better for me?" She tells her off, looking directly at her.

There is a little silence between them, and before Jisoo continues, she takes a deep breath to calm herself down and starts again in a steady gentle tone, "I don't want you to leave."

A truck approaches them, the headlights of it fall on them as it passes by, revealing a glimpses of Jisoo's face.

Her expressions are serious, but her eyes are dark, eyelashes wet, and a tear is on her way to leave her cheek.

The truck moved away from them darkening the place again, but Jennie no longer needs the light.

"I..didn't offer you money so you can leave like this, I offered it to you so you can solve your problem and continue to live here. I was thinking to plan a visit from time to time, to create coincidences so I can meet you and we may get to know each other more.." she declares in all seriousness and Jennie reddens hearing that.

'She's blurting everything out!'

"I don't want to meet you in another life, I don't want to meet after many years from now, I can't afford to wait that long. We're already have this life.." Jisoo confesses, her tone filled with tenderness as she follows,

"I want you now."

The silence reigns between them as she lets her words sink in, she knows that she has to take that thought, that bad judgment on herself, out of her mind first. 

"And please, stop blaming yourself, stop looking down at yourself. If only you could see yourself through me, Then you will understand.. you will see how beautiful you are in my eyes." She finishes and she doesn't mean her outer beauty, but the beauty of her soul.

Jennie doesn't know what to say anymore, she's so overwhelmed by Jisoo words that she feels she's about to cry any second, she's already tearing up.

'This's too much..too much for me.'

"And I'm not any better than you.." Jisoo adds making Jennie furrow in disbelief.

\- "Not true." Jennie objects quickly.

"I'm not."

\- "Yes, you are."

"I'm not!" Jisoo snaps impatiently, in non angry way, "Gosh! Jennie, are you going to die if you didn't oppose me for once? Is this how you treat the god's gift to you?" 

"wh-what?" Jennie lets out offhandedly, feeling dumbfounded for a moment as her eyes widens, and turns her head away shyly, "Yah!Don't reminding me of what I wrote! I'm already embarrassed enough!"

"What? You didn't mean it?" Jisoo asks her genuinely, her tone filled with worry.

-" of course I did!" She assures her immediately, looking back at her.

Silence is back between them for a while before Jennie digresses," I..I hurt you. Just..just forget about me.." she finishes, feeling unworthy, as she tries to turn around and leave when Jisoo stops her by holding her wrist.

"So? Does running away will make the hurt go away?" She asks her in an authoritative determined tone, looking sharply at her, "shouldn't you stay and make up for it?" 

Jennie stills for a moment, feeling more lost.

"Why are you like this?" Jennie says, freeing her wrist and backing away. "You don't even know me!"

"Then let me!" Jisoo declares hopefully, "I want to know you."

Jennie stares at her again, still can't believe what's happening.

"No..I can't , I'm stupid.. you make me stupid!" She says ruffling her hair helplessly and looking somewhere else, " I feel like I'm the stupidest girl on earth when I'm with you.." She adds looking back at Jisoo as she takes a step toward her.

"You're not the only one." Jisoo assures her calmly.

\- "Too many bad and dangerous men are chasing after me.."

Another step forward..

"I will protect you."

\- "You might get hurt.."

Another step acrossing Jisoo's personal space to stand right in front of her.

"You won't allow it."

They stare at each other for moments before Jennie lowers her gaze and raises her right hand slowly and puts it lightly on Jisoo's arm as she gets closer and rests her head on Jisoo's left shoulder.

She stays like this for another long silent moments and Jisoo lets her..

"My heart is heavy." Jennie informs her lastly, making sure that Jisoo is aware of everything that might happen or might face her, and that she has a heavy heart.

A heavy heart that requires great care and carries many expectations from the other, placing great pressure on them.

"I will carry it carefully." She promises tilting her head to let it touch Jennie's head gently.

Jennie's hand, that was still on Jisoo's arm, slips leisurely down, without lifting it until it reaches Jisoo's hand and Jennie intertwines their fingers together and tightens her fingers around Jisoo's hand.

"Jennie.. stay?" In a whisper, she adds.

Jennie lifts her head to look at Jisoo, her face is so close to her, and she can recognize her features now.

Jisoo is looking at her too.

She leans her head a little closer and rests the side of her face on the side of Jisoo's face, with both of their eyes are closed.

Moments pass before Jennie's lips find their way towards the spot between the corner of Jisoo's mouth and below her cheek, placing a long and affectionate kiss as her body pushes onto Jisoo's body a little.

She can feel the heat of her body flowing and she hopes that this heat will reach Jisoo so that it may warm her cold skin.

And Jisoo got her answer.

She lifts her lips and pulls her face away, facing Jisoo again before Jisoo rests her forehead on Jennie's forehead and they stay like this for a little while.

"Let's go back home." Jisoo says, wearing a weak smile.

.

.

.

.

.

.

They arrive at the mansion and enter the front yard. The car stops and they exit, Jisoo steps ahead of Jennie, then stops, turns to her and extends her hand to Jennie. 

Jennie looks at Jisoo first for a moment and then at her hand before she takes it eagerly and they continue walking.

Jisoo was walking in front of Jennie as she had before, except that now she is sauntering and gently holding the hand of Jennie on their way to her wing.

She reaches her room and lets Jennie go in first and she follows and closes the door behind them. She puts her keys and phone on the make-up table and heads toward her closet while Jennie is still standing at the door with a lost expression, not knowing what to do, where to look, or why Jisoo led her to room.

Jisoo opens one of the closet doors, takes off her jacket, throws it inside the closet, and then takes off her T-shirt to stay only with a bra.

When Jennie sees her, she turns around quickly facing the door, feeling extremely shy.

"Wha- What are you doing?" Jennie exclaims bashfully.

\- "Changing my clothes?" Jisoo replies sarcastically while still changing her clothes, amused at her reaction.

"I know..I mean, I'm still here!"

\- "So? We're both girls."

'Right..we're both girls. Why so nervous?'

Jennie stays facing the door for a little while and then turns back around to find that she has already finished wearing her sleepwear. 

Jisoo shuffles toward her bed and turns around it to sit on the right side of it. 

"Why are you still standing there? Aren't you going to change your clothes?" She wonders looking up at Jennie.

\- "Oh yeah..I'm going now."

Jennie turns around and is about to open the door when Jisoo stops her:

"Where are you going?"

\- "To my room." Jennie answers simply as she turns back to her.

"Oh, you're not going anywhere. You're sleeping here tonight." Jisoo states firmly making Jennie's face go blank.

"What? Why?"

"I mean, how do I know? I can't leave you alone, maybe you will run away again or something."

\- "I thought we have already solved that problem." 

Jisoo doesn't say anything, and just raises her eyebrows, shrugs and points to the closet her head, wearing a broad smile on her face.

"What? Here? In front of you?" Jennie asks in disbelief and Jisoo follows nonchalantly,  
"Are you shy? I'll close my eyes then." 

Jisoo closes her eyes, and leans against the headboard. Jennie sighs helplessly, hiding her amusement at Jisoo's behavior, and goes to the closet to change her clothes to wear one of Jisoo's sleepwear.

After finishing changing her clothes, she stands next to the closet, as she looks at Jisoo, who was true to her words and kept her eyes closed. Jennie was looking at her with a hidden smile, and when Jisoo doesn't hear any movement from Jennie she asks, "done?"

No answer.. 

she slowly opens her eyes to see Jennie standing staring at her, looking so tiny and cute.

"It suits you.." She adds softly and smiles, puts her hand on the empty space beside her and patters it, "Come here."

Jennie saunters towards the bed and sits at the side where Jisoo referred to.

Jisoo adjusts her sitting and then lays down on her left side with her left hand under her head and the other hand resting on the empty space that remained between them. Her eyes still on Jennie.

Jennie lays down as well on her right side facing Jisoo, with her arms folded close to her, one resting on the pillow and the other rests on top of it. Looking at Jisoo and Jisoo's looking at her, as they let the comfortable silence prevails between them.

"Jennie." Jisoo says calmly.

-"Yes." She responds matching her tone.

"Jennie.." 

-"I'm listening."

"Jennie!" 

She repeats playfully as Jennie starts to smile, "Yes, Jisoo!"

"Jennie... Jennie..Jen Jen.. Jennie.." she sings in a slow melody making her chuckle softly, "What? Jisoo.."

Jisoo extends her hand towards Jennie's face and runs her fingers on her eyebrow gently and slowly, all the way to the side of her face from her eye to her chin.

"Jennie, you're so beautiful." She tells her from an observational view.

\- "Not as beautiful as you're." Jennie replies tenderly.

"Your eyes are very beautiful too."

\- "Yours are prettier."

"I can stay like this, contemplating your beauty for a long..long time."

\- "You're exaggerating." She dismisses, feeling flattered. 

"But this is really how I feel now."

\- "Then it's as you say, I'm the most beautiful girl on earth." She agrees wholeheartedly.

Jisoo smiles broadly while Jennie is smiling like an idiot now, she needs a super power to make her stop smiling.

Jisoo didn't stop her hand caressing movements over the side of Jennie's face; pushing her hair strands back to the rest of her hair or holding one of them between the tips of her index and middle finger, lifting them slightly and returning it to the rest of the hair and Jennie just lets her.

"Jennie.." she starts again, her tone is low and soft.

\- "Yes, Jisoo." Jennie responds playing along.

"Jennie."

-"What now?"

"Jennie..Jennie.." in a melodic tone making her chuckle again.

\- "Do you like saying my name that much?" 

"Can you blame me? You deprived me from it for a week!" Jisoo answers playfully, but Jennie's expression goes serious and sad.

-" I'm sorry." 

"Stop apologizing." 

Jisoo stresses knowing that she still feeling guilty and silence is back between them for moments before Jennie decides to change the subject and starts genuinely worried, "Why don't you go to sleep? You had a business dinner, then you went out like this and stayed until midnight, you must be exhausted." 

"A little more.. I want to stay with you like this a little more." Jisoo declares wearing a warm smile, "Let's talk about other things, Um..is there something you're wondering about and want to ask me about it?"

Jennie falls silent for a moment as she thinks about it, "Ah yes. How did you know my home address?"

"Lisa told me about your village and the rest I knew with the help of an old man who knew your father. What about you, where have you been?"

\- "I went to the man who was my father's friend at the port and while I was waiting for the ship that would take me, to arrive, we got the news that the port will be closed and that they can't sail. So I went out to search for a deserted place where I could stay until the morning and then I remembered that my ID was still at home along with other stuff. I kept waiting until it passed midnight, in case someone was there. And the rest you know it.. " Jennie explains in one go, so immersed in her talk that she didn't notice herself.

"Woah! I wasn't expecting a long answer," Jisoo jokes teasingly, lifting her hand off Jennie's face, "Now I'm really starting to feel sleepy."

Jennie's eyes widens at that, feeling embarrassed.

\- "Jisoo!" She says pouting, pretending to be mad, and then she smiles as she remembers something that has always aroused her curiosity, "Why don't you have any perfume?" 

"Oh, I don't mean anything with this," Jennie digresses quickly lifting her head slightly when Jisoo's expression goes straight, surprised by her question, "you smell great! I just.. your scent-"

"Okay..'kay..I get it!" Jisoo assures her, cutting her ramble,holding her laugh and then she answers her calmly, "Because I'm allergic to it."

Her smile widens when she sees Jennie's cute realization expression, forming a small O with her mouth.

"Jennie.." she starts again with a skeptical tone.

\- "Oh god no! Not again!"

Jisoo puts her hand on her stomach when they both burst into laughter at that as they look at each other.

"Your laugh is beautiful too."  
Jisoo blurts out between the laughs, drawing Jennie's attention to her and to stop laughing, while her smile is still present.

\- "Then I will never stop laughing."

"Okay, but don't overdo it. I don't want others to think that I'm hiding some kind of a psycho with me."

Jennie laughs at that, and as she keeps laughing her eyes tear up unitl she stops laughing gradually looking at Jisoo. She covers her face with her hand as her tears starts to fall rapidly.

\- "Stop crying already!" Jisoo says in a steady non angry tone.

"I'm sorry."

\- "Jennie!"

"I'm just.. so happy right now."

Jisoo stares at her meaningfully for a moment before she puts her hand gently on Jennie's hand and moves it away from her face, revealing it. Jennie calms herself down a little while looking at Jisoo, her eyes are still watery.

With her thumb, Jisoo wipes the tears from Jennie's eyes and cheeks, and after she's done, she goes back caressing the side of her face. 

"Don't. okay?" Jisoo asks looking at her with worrisome and Jennie just nods as she pouts and sniffles.

Jisoo notices a bright red spot on her wrist, so she pulls her hand and places it on the spot as she runs her fingers carefully over the red area.

"Does it hurt?"

-"It's nothing." 

Jisoo's fingers pause and curl around her wrist, holding it, as she pulls Jennie's hand towards her and puts it closer to her chest.

" Jisoo.." this time, it's Jennie who starts. 

-"Yes." Jisoo smiles knowing what Jennie intends to do.

What she thinks she intends to do.

"Jisoo.."

\- "Yes, Jennie.."

Jennie shifts her body closer to Jisoo so that only Jisoo's folded arm, under her head, is separating them.

"I really want to hug you right now." 

🎶▶️ Alina Baraz - My Whole Life.

'And also kiss you, on your cheek again..but I'll leave this for another time.'

Jisoo stares at her for a while, taken back a little, then she lets go of Jennie's hand, shifts back away, pulles her hand out from under her head, and opens her arms, an invitation from her to Jennie to come closer.

Jennie doesn't waste anytime and shifts closer, passes her arms around Jisoo's waist, buries her face at the corner of her neck and tightens her arms more around her and so does Jisoo.

She can feel Jisoo's heartbeat accelerating and she smiles, because this means that Jisoo feels exactly the same as her. She embraces her more forcefully and warmly as she nuzzles with slight movements around Jisoo's neck as if she could blend with her and become one, she would.

They stay like this for a few minutes, both of them don't want to sleep now but Jisoo has reached her limit for the day, her eyelids are struggling to stay open.

"Jennie.." she calls with faint tired voice.

\- "Yes, Jisoo" Jennie replies matching her tone. 

"Good night."

\- "Good night-"

Jennie stills when she feels Jisoo's lips on her crown, giving her a kiss with the same energy that Jennie kissed her with before, letting herself fall into a deep sleep.

"Sweet dreams Jisoo." She whisper to her lovingly.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

It's approaching dawn and Jennie is still awake, engulfed in Jisoo's arms. She's unusually active, doesn't want to waste such moments sleeping.

Gently, she pulls her head away from Jisoo's shoulder with her body and arm, and promotes herself on her elbow. She wants to look at Jisoo as she sleeps, to contemplate her..

People's hearts are fragile.

You cannot imagine the number of things and actions that they might get attached to, no matter how simple or small, exaggerated or ridiculous in the eyes of others, whether they're material or moral. These things and these actions ignited something inside them they didn't know existed and that is all.

What Jisoo did to Jennie might be seen by someone who didn't go through the same circumstances as Jennie, normal and happens often, but no.. not for Jennie. Who may hold you after discovering your attempt to steal them? Who may understand your reasons then? Who might trust you completely after?

Jisoo is no longer an ordinary person in Jennie's eyes, especially that Jisoo had showed her mutual feelings for her, letting her know that she's wanted.

She could offer her heart on a plate for Jisoo if she wanted to..

Jennie raises her hand so carefully so that she doesn't wake her up and moves few tresses lightly away from Jisoo's face.

"Jisoo.." in a whisper, "You're sleeping and you have no idea of what you're doing to my heart." 

She falls silent for a bit then she follows,  
"I don't know what's in store for us tomorrow or the rest of the days, but I will trust you. I will trust these two arms that carried me before I fall.

I will trust you and I'll keep you close."

Two people, there is nothing that binds them together; their lives are different, their circumstances are different, their families are different, it's not the coincidence that brought them together. 

What brought them together was the pain.

——————————  
The End  
——————————

A/N: Hi everyone, it's the end of the book, not the end of story.

Stay tuned for book two, their story had just begun.

If you like it, let me know and leave a review and vote, also it will help me continue and it'll be much appreciated. 

All love, Ary. ♥️

———————————————  
Thank you all for your Votes & comments ♥ ️

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I won’t publish Book 2 on this platform,  
> If you like, you can find it on AFF or Wattpad. Follow me on Twitter (ary_yazn) to know if it’s published.
> 
> AFF: aryzno  
> Wttp: ary_yazn

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone, I'm Ary and this is my new Jensoo fanfic (Keep You Close | English ver.). If you like it, pls vote and leave a comment. It will be much appreciated. Also if you have any thoughts, let me know.
> 
> Love, Ary ♥️


End file.
